Which Way to Konoha?
by LaaDee
Summary: "It all started when Kakashi-sensei told me to go fishing..." They shouldn't have been surprised, he had always had the absolute worse sense of direction and the most mind boggling luck.
1. An Unlikely Report

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**WARNING! Proper Naruto World Map completely ignored!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim to own that which has already been created, patented, or copyrighted.

* * *

Naruto shifted within his bonds lackadaisically. Tsunade hadn't tied him up too tight, but Naruto didn't try to escape, not yet anyway. His mind was a beehive of thought, and he was too _tired_ to really but much effort into a proper attempt.

"So Naruto," called Tsunade and Naruto looked up from contemplating his bindings to glaze up into the blazing eyes of the Hokage. She did not look happy, Naruto decided, in fact he was sure he had never seen her so angry before, "would you mind telling me where you have been for the last year and a half?"

"Here and there," shrugged Naruto noncommittally, he was more concerned about receiving answers to his own questions then answering hers, "Hey, that entry in the Bingo Book that Neji showed me, it wasn't real, was it?"

Naruto's eyebrows screwed together and he didn't let his eyes leave the old lady's face. His patience was soon rewarded as he watched Tsunade bodily deflate. The anger that had been present since he had been tied to that chair late that afternoon was placed on the back burner, and what shined in her eyes now could only be called disappointment. It made Naruto squirm in his seat, the ropes of his bindings chafing his wrist and bare arms in the process.

"Naruto," Tsunade began seriously, but Naruto didn't stop fidgeting, "You went M.I.A after a mission, just a few months after you had gotten back from traveling with Jiraiya, what were we suppose to think? You'd gone soul searching?"

Naruto snorted at her dry attempt at humor; he trusted that this meant she didn't think his case was _too_ hopeless.

"Fine, but I want to at least tell my side of the story," challenged Naruto, calming down and allowing a sure smile to light his features.

Tsunade didn't answer right away, the old anger seemed to have been re-ignited and it showed in her eyes as she looked down at the confident teenager. Naruto gulped, he hadn't meant to antagonize her, so he quickly schooled his features, replacing his confident smile with a downturned pout and his clear blue eyes with sad, pleading ones. Naruto had to clench down on the feelings of triumphant when he physically felt her resolve weaken.

"If we're going to do this, we need it to be legal, with witnesses and a council, and they'll be your judges," explained Tsunade after a few moments of silence, she searched Naruto's face for any sign of concern. This was bound to happen anyway, Tsunade knew, but she was determined to avoid sending him to the T&I, "but you should know that finding any judge is going to be hard, especially an unbiased one, after you went M.I.A. there was a lot of hard feelings. You should know there's a very high possibility of you receiving the harshest punishment, even if your story checks out."

Naruto was willing to accept these terms; he knew there was nothing to worry about. So he leveled a bored look to her searching eyes, a hard glint in his true blue eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, bring it on Granny; I'll prove them all wrong!"

* * *

It would take until the next morning for them to gather the Jury and begin the trial, which would be conducted in the Hokage's office, so in the meantime Naruto had been held overnight in the office. Throughout the night he had remained tied to his chair and had watched in bemusement as the raging Tsunade lectured him while downing shot after shot of warm sake. His apprehension quickly turned to delight as after she had finished her third bottle she had ceased to lecture him, having forgotten why she was angry in the first place, before she had proceeded to congratulate him on his marriage and began to interrogate him on his future plans with said wife. Naruto had eagerly played along; anything to stop the ringing in his ears from her shouting, all the while secretly relieved to see that something's never changed after all.

When morning came and Tsunade had been awakened from her drunken stupor by Shizune, it had only taken an hour to gather the necessary people to begin Naruto's trial. Naruto was grateful to finally start, the rope, although loose, was starting to get itchy and his muscles were beginning to feel achy. The quicker he told the story the quicker he could be released from this characterless bondage.

The council consisted of five ninjas. The Hokage's most trusted assistant, Shizune, as well as Yamanaka Inoichi, Shiranui Genma, Nara Shikaku, and Yuhi Kurenai. Also present at Naruto's trial was the two teams that had brought him in, the old Team Gai and Team 10, when he had seen them he had sent a grin their way, he would have waved but his wrists were currently being held in place so even the slightest movement caused a slight shock of pain. The two teams would be required to give their testimonies of the capture of Naruto as well as a testimony on his behavior towards his past companions.

"Alright Naruto, these people will be your judge," Tsunade affirmed, and Naruto raised an eyebrow at the mismatched jury but quickly shrugged it off, besides Shizune he'd never really talked to any of these people, he supposed that maybe that talking to strangers would make it easier to get his story across.

"You'd better make this worth our time," Inoichi said harshly, and Naruto nodded with a shrug. He supposed that whether his story was '_worth it_' depended on the listener, he shouldn't really be expected to be the one to dictate that.

"It all started when Kakashi-sensei told me to go fishing…" Naruto began ominously.

* * *

_To be continued…_

**A/N: This all takes place between the time Naruto returns to Konoha after training with Jiraiya and the three tails.**


	2. A Fishing Tale

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own anything Naruto related!_

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"_It all started when Kakashi-sensei, told me to go fishing…"_

Naruto couldn't help but grumble as he took off his socks and dropped them carelessly beside his crumpled orange jacket, wrinkled black undershirt, and almost empty weapon pouch. Soon his chain mail shirt followed by his orange him standing in only his boxers, his Konoha headband, and Tsunade's cursed necklace. Goose bumps rose along his exposed skin and he cursed Kakashi-sensei again.

"Stupid Kakashi-sensei!" wailed Naruto, "I don't see why _I _have to be the one that fishes; Sakura and Sai are just as good at fishing."

He walked to the bank of the river and glared at the empty branches of the trees that surrounded him. He _knew _that Kakashi-sensei had only given him this task because he could more easily recuperate from the freezing, late autumn waters but that didn't stop the task from being unfair. He took a deep breath and stepped into the icy waters, no regrets he promised himself, but when the water touched his bare legs he couldn't keep his suffering silent.

"YATTA! That's cold!" Naruto yelled, wincing as he continued in the icy water. He barely registered the autumn birds that scattered at his shout. He stopped waist deep, a shiver crawling down his spine with the speed a drowsy snail, he placed his hands millimeters from the water's semi-calm surface waiting for a fish to swim by.

The water was rather murky but Naruto had no problem fling two shrimp sized fish onto the bank behind him. After several more minutes with no luck, Naruto was starting to get eager. He knew that he couldn't make any sudden movements without scaring the fish away for good, but his legs were numb from the cold, and he was growing restless.

Underneath the dark waters of the muddy river a flash of scales could just barely be seen lazily swimming against the tide a little bit deeper in. So with the skills of a ninja, Naruto tried to move as silently and gracefully through the water towards the large expanse of gleaming scales. Naruto nearly shouted out in success as he finally reached the fish's side without scaring it away, but he held in his joy and with bent knees, his hands entered the water as quick as lightening. Naruto was surprised to find that the length of his arms could not properly reach around the fish's body, but shrugged off the implications as he smirked down at the fish.

"Alright fish, be prepared to face defeat from the number one, super great ninja and future Hokage of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto crowed, he couldn't help but boast.

Even without a steady grip around the fish, Naruto lifted with his legs and found that the fish didn't budge. Naruto bent his legs again, and this time with chakra infused muscles and a battle cry lifted the massive fish… a few centimeters above the water's surface. Naruto grunted and groaned as he supplied more chakra into lifting the aquatic animal. By now the fish started to squirm.

"Waah!" Naruto exclaimed, as the fish wiggled so much that he lost his balance. Naruto's feet were swept from underneath him and he was dunked head first underwater. Naruto squeezed his eyes shut as he was submerged fighting not to breathe in the water from the shock of the icy waters. He opened one eye and in shock opened the other. The fish that he had tried to catch looked soullessly back at him. It wasn't the gaze of the fish that had Naruto gasping in surprise; it was the fish's size. The monster's head alone was the same height as Kakashi-sensei was tall and its length couldn't be determined as its body disappeared in the muddy clouds that Naruto's feet had kicked up when he slipped.

Naruto struggled, trying to climb towards the surface of the water to refill his lungs with air. He could feel the river's current pulling him away from the shallows where he had started his fishing exploit and down the river. The closer to the surface he got, the nearer the fish appeared, and Naruto knew something wasn't right. When he finally broke the plane of water into the ventilated atmosphere, Naruto greedily sucked in as much air as he could.

Before he could satisfy his bodies need, the monstrous fish leapt from the depths of the water and latched itself onto Naruto's head.

"Gaw! Let me go!" Naruto's muffled yowling sounded from the moist, dark cavern of the man-eating fish's mouth. Naruto's fist beat the sides of the fish's head, seeking any spot that would guarantee a release. Naruto even tried to use chakra enhanced hits to batter the fish's sides. But the more he struggled the tighter he was held in the fish's toothless jaws.

As he continued to battle the fish he found he was quickly running out of both air and energy. Naruto was starting to get desperate as his body floated further and further away from where he began fishing for the team's dinner. Black spots roamed his line of vision, and Naruto was feeling light-headed. With one last struggle, his Konoha headband came off and drifted down the monstrous fish's throat. With a frenzied cry Naruto felt himself regain strength as he tried to dive down the fish's esophagus, frantically trying to take back the headband he had gotten from Iruka-sensei.

"Give that back... Spit it out, right NOW!" Naruto howled. He kicked his legs and swung his arms, trying to get deeper in the cavern of the monster's mouth. With a terrible hacking sound, Naruto found himself back in the water his decorative head piece had disappeared along with one of his few treasured valuables. With angry eyes he looked around for the fish that had eaten Iruka-sensei's headband. All he saw of the fish was a faint outline of the fish's tail-fin as it swam downstream. Naruto passionately took off after the fish.

Even with his ridiculous stamina, Naruto's limps felt like lead and his chest felt tight. His body grew weaker and his vision stared to go black. Naruto reluctantly began to scramble towards the vaporous sky. After a millennium, he reached the water's surface, and broke through with ease, gulping in as much air as his lungs could hold.

With one last sorrowful glance downstream, Naruto pushed his burning limps to move him to solid ground. When he was in shallow enough water, he used his hands to heave himself on to dry land.

On sturdy ground once again, he rolled onto his back and gasped for air his eyes sliding closed.

"I gotta… get back to… my… team soon," Naruto muttered out loud to himself. His mumbling masked the cracking of a branch the usual signal of an approaching predator. Naruto never even heard the whisper of clothing, as his eyes grew heavy and his ears could only register the sweet lull of exhaustion. Darkness surrounded him and he did nothing to stop it.

"Genjustu: Blank Mind, success," was whispered throughout the otherwise silent world. With nary a complaint from Naruto, who gladly embraced the sometimes too familiar blankness and succumbed to its sigh of slumber.

'_Shoot…' _Naruto thought before he knew no more.

* * *

"_When I woke up I found myself in a cell like the ones in Konoha's T&I's…"_

_To be continued…_


	3. Imprisoned

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **_Really, I don't own anything…just trust me on this one!_

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"_When I woke up I found myself in a cell like the ones in Konoha's T&I's…"_

Naruto yawned and rubbed his blurry eyes. He looked around the drab room, with emotionless eyes. A cast iron door was locked shut beside him and his flimsy metal bed frame was bolted to the floor. With disinterest Naruto looked beyond the small barred window that was crusted in bird crap and rocks to see foggy mountains spotting the horizon.

He had woken up to the same view every morning for the last 56 days, and he had long since come to the realization that the scenery was as good as it got. Though he didn't mind at the moment because it was better than being in the integration rooms, strapped to a chair, like he had been for the first ten days of his capture. Needless to say, Naruto liked the freedom his small 6x6 room gave him.

Naruto barely registered a small latch at the bottom to the door opening and a bowl of watery soup flying through followed by the crust of a piece of prehistoric bread. He smiled, it wasn't the worse place he'd lived in, Naruto had to admit, and 2 meals a days were always appreciated.

"Thanks, Kumo Ninja!" Naruto said, as he approached the food. His only answer was the slamming of the latched door. Then something unexpected happened, the ninja on the other side of the cast iron door answered.

"Enjoy, Ninja-san," came the soft spoken voice of the food delivery ninja. Naruto looked bewildered towards the locked door.

"When don't I?" heartily inquired Naruto as he slowly slurped up his breakfast. Naruto never received an answer as the noiseless, almost undetectable footsteps of the Kumo ninja marked his departure. He looked around the specialized room that had been his home for 56 days. He had quickly discovered that the walls seemed to absorb any charka he expelled, the barred window left no room to slip out of, and the cast iron door was batter-proof. All in all Naruto had yet to discover a way out of the prison, but he was determined to never give up the fight for his freedom.

Naruto had come to the startlingly conclusion that he was in a Kumo prison on the 4th day of his capture when someone finally bothered to show up to question him on his capture and appearance in Kumo. Naruto was ecstatic to see another life form and drunk in the man's appearance but saw on the integrators forearm was a headband with the mark of Kumo. He had learned a lot on the 4th day, namely that he had been captured by desperate bounty hunters who took anyone hostage to turn into the closest Hidden Village. He also found that the man-eating fish had dragged him over the border and into Kumo.

He recalled later that week Kakashi-sensei's instructions not to leave a certain part of the river, or he could risk arrest by patrolling nins. His team was stationed on a four-way connected border, three of the borders held hostile nins that greatly disliked foreign invaders and the fourth was the country they had been hired to patrol, to keep out any illegal aliens that might cross the border of the three other countries and onto their land. Naruto's fight with the fish had landed him firmly on Kumo's side of that border and now he was suffering for it.

When Naruto was done slurping down his meal, he placed the bowl by the latched opening of the door, before moving over to the window. He watched through the crusty window as some type of bird dove into the canopies of the ancient trees before swopping back up, a snake dangling from its talons.

Naruto stood there for what felt like ages. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door was suddenly flung open and with honed reflects Naruto found himself twisting his body away from what could have been a shuriken attack. Wide-eyed and chest heaving from a rush of adrenaline, Naruto looked towards his would be attacker, a hand resting on the only scar that had ever stuck to his body, located on his collarbone. It was a brand that he had gotten his 14th day of incarceration, on it was Kumo's symbol and the numbers "22,835,906", his prisoner number. He was comforted by the slight weight of Tsunade's cursed necklace that the warden had allowed him to keep, due to his good behavior.

"You scared me, Kumo Ninja!" Naruto declared, with a slight pout. The ninja, Naruto noted, was barely able to restrain his eyes from rolling. Naruto gave a foxy grin to the man dressed up in his full ninja armor. It was well known that Naruto would refer to all guards as 'Kumo Ninja', the warden found it quite entertaining and didn't try to dissuade Naruto from saying it. It was also a well known fact that most guards hated Naruto because of his blunt optimism but the Warden treasured him for it.

"Hands out, Ninja," monotonously said the guard. Naruto happily ignored him as he walked up to the guard; hands tucked into his brown drawstring pants pockets.

"Ninja…" warned the guard, "I will use force if you keep advancing."

Naruto didn't pause, but he lazily walked up to the guard, a disinterested look on his face. Naruto cocked his head as he looked into the Kumo Ninja's eyes, he was new. Naruto might only be fifteen years old and technically still a genin, but this guard was terrified of him. Naruto's eyebrows drew together, the Kumo Ninja was shaking slightly, and the scent of fear permeated his nose. He became quite familiar with the scent while in this prison, the other prisoners aroma was incased by it.

"Kumo Ninja, what's going on?" Naruto asked, in confusion. The guard did not relax, if anything he grew even tenser.

"No… No one informed you?" hesitantly questioned the guard. Naruto shook his head.

"What's going on!" repeated Naruto, this time as calmly as he could, hoping to coax the man to inform him on what was going on. Well as calmly as Naruto could. Still the guard remained tense, twitching on and off. The guard stayed tightlipped, and the white porcelain mask that covered all guard's faces seemed to project remorse.

"Hands out, please Ninja-sama," the guard said softly. With a roll of his eyes, Naruto finally obliged and held out his hands. The guard lifted a strange shackling device to fasten Naruto's wrist into submission. The shackles had a ½ inch thick bar to keep Naruto's hands a solid foot from each other, confining Naruto's ability to use justus out of the justu dampening cells.

"Hey! Hey Kumo Ninja! Where we goin'?" Naruto exclaimed lightheartedly. The guard was now extremely taciturn and would remain that way the whole trip. This never disheartened Naruto as he continued to try to cajole the guard into a conversation. The guard simply led Naruto down the maze of hallways decorated with hundreds of cast iron doors, through a mess of random doors, and up miles of stairs.

At long last, the guard and Naruto reached the door at the top of the staircase. The guard, with shaky hands, shoved a key into the lock and with his shoulder heaved the heavy door open. The sun was bright and temporarily blinded Naruto, causing the blond to unwittingly rely on the guard to lead him to where he needed to be.

When the black blobs stopped dancing in Naruto's vision, he found himself standing in beside multiple other prisoners. There were two straight lines, facing each other, and where filled with chained prisoners, and if Naruto was reading the markers right, all of which were ninja. Dread filled the pit of his stomach as he heard the whirling sound of a sealing justu just below him. Naruto cursed violently in his mind as he found his hands and feet chained to the ground, he could no longer move freely.

Naruto looked up from glaring at his restrictions to glower at the two Kumo Ninja that stood between the two lines. One cleared his throat to gain the attention of all the outraged ninjas.

"I am sorry to announce that today is the day of your execution," one of the nondescript Kumo executioners declared while his companion glared at his cold-hearted tone.

"What my compatriot means, is that the Raikage finds having foreign ninja in the land during a time such as now too dangerous for the shaky alliances we uphold," the second unremarkable Kumo executioner said.

"Especially one that isn't beneficial to the Land of Lightening," murmured the first.

"So you're gonna KILL US!" shouted one of the fool-hardy ninja.

"Well that's the plan, yes," shrugged the first executioner unconcernedly.

"That's a stupid plan!" Naruto found himself saying as he glared at the two.

"Why do you say that Ninja-san," asked the second executioner.

"I don't know, but it sure sounds like one," said Naruto grudgingly.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but it's the orders from the higher ups," said the impartial first executioner. The two executioners went through a series of hand seals before the ground behind the prisoners found itself missing the earth that had filled it for centuries.

"We're going to make this as swift as possible," said the second compassionately.

"But not painless?" questioned one of the smarter ninja.

"Naw, probably not," the first said with another shrug "No one's ever really lived through it, so we can't really ask them about it."

"That does make sense," Naruto muttered to himself. Naruto looked at his fellow death day partners (not that he planned on dying, mind you), and watched with proud eyes as most kept a stiff upper lip, as they kept their chins raised in silent dignity. Naruto watched fearlessly trying to form a useable plan to save them all as each of the ones before him received a kunai to the chest, a shock tag attached to the loop. With a simple brilliant blue light the life fled their bodies and the remains tumbled into the holes that had been created behind them as their chains that once held them in place released them.

Before long, only two remained, Naruto and the man that stood in front of him. The man was built like a mountain, with biceps the size of two hundred year old tree trunks. Simultaneously the two executioners threw their last kunai at the same time in opposing directions, towards the spot just above the heart, their victims' aorta.

_Scink!_

_Clunk!_

The two kunai echoed as one made contact and the other was deflected. Naruto smirked as he watched in slow-motion a look of panic crossing both executioners' faces, as their surefire execution technique was blown away. Naruto looked down, and saw red blooming like a morning glory on his shirt, micrometers away from piercing his aorta. The shock tag was smoking and billowing sluggishly with the wind, the buildup of chakra eating away the paper trying to reach the seal painted on the front, designed to instantly kill its prey with a lethal dose of electricity once the chakra ate through the seal.

Memories flashed in front of his eyes. One such memory stuck out and with a silent prayer Naruto concentrated chakra through the pores in his chest, hoping the tag would split like the leaf he once practiced his Wind Style out on.

Naruto was so focused on saving his own life that he didn't pay attention to the drama that surrounded him. The man that was built like a mountain had turned his body into rock; his brown gray face watched the executioners for any movement as he ripped his chained hands and feet from the ground with brute strength. Now that the man's hands were loosed from there bindings, a rock hard fist collided with the second executioners head, killing him instantly. The rock man turned to the first executioner, who was frozen in place. The rock man's hands went through a series of hand seals with unbelievable speed. After the last seal was made, the rock man slammed his hands into the packed earth in front of him.

"**Earth Style: Body Burial**!" the mountain man's gravelly voice declared. The first executioner's body was eaten by the reacting ground, never to be seen again. The mountain man looked around and was mildly surprised to see Naruto still standing.

While the mountain man was focused on the executioners, Naruto was sweating as he tried to concentrate his chakra enough to make a clean cut. With an inward cry of effort, the shock seal was cut jaggedly just millimeters below the burning section of the seal. Naruto breathed heavily, as he looked up to see what was happening with the now silent executioners. All he saw was the mountain man looking interestedly down at the still chained but very alive Naruto.

"Heh, um!" Naruto said looking at the body of one of the dead executioner's, "I'm glad you took care of them, that really sarcastic one was annoying."

The man only grunted as he looked at the only visible Kumo Ninja, which he carelessly picked up and haphazardly threw the body in roughly the same spot that the mountain man would have landed had the execution technique worked.

"Do you mind helping me out?" asked Naruto, if he could shift his feet in embarrassment he would have.

The mountain man looked at him, seeming to weigh the options before almost reluctantly approaching Naruto's side and strong arming the chains apart, and easily tearing the metal that held Naruto's bare feet steadfastly attached to the ground.

"You'll die anyway," grunted the deep, hoarse voice of the man made of rock, "I should warn you, that kunai in your chest is too close to the heart, and you'll lose too much blood."

"I've had worse," shrugged Naruto as he rubbed his once chained wrists. The man only grunted as he made a simple dragon seal. The man's muscle mass decreased slightly as his body lost the elemental texture.

"We had best get out of here," said the man as he looked over towards the look-out tower that was 100 yards away. The sun was still high in the sky but the beam of the searchlights perused around the prison wall.

"I can make a good distraction," Naruto offered as he looked over to the man. Naruto fingers hovered over the area the kunai was attached.

"Don't touch that," commanded the man. Naruto shamefacedly looked away from the man, his hand lowering.

"To tell the truth, I don't think that I can run anywhere," Naruto grudgingly admitted as he glanced down at his chest. When Naruto looked up he saw the man flinch away from the wound Naruto had sustained and looked ahead at the forest just outside the prison walls.

The man looked out silently before he kneeled down offering his back to the downed Naruto. Naruto grinned, a large squinty eyed grin.

"If you mention this to anyone, I _will_ kill you," said the man. Naruto chuckled, his grin never fading.

"I've had worse," repeated Naruto. The man grunted as way of response.

"Don't make any diversions until we get caught, I don't want them on our trail until they already are," grunted the man as he leapt towards the first of the 5 layers of the prison walls that surrounded the area. Naruto remained mute for once and concentrated on not sticking the kunai the rest of the way through his chest. He wasn't too distracted to not prepare the ram seal in case a diversion was needed right away.

His forethought was rewarded as the moment they climbed up the first wall the alarm was raised. Naruto could hear the guards assembling with his sensitive ears and prepared to apply chakra to his seal.

"Get ready," Naruto lowly uttered, "an alarm was triggered and the guards are gathering, be prepared to be attacked any second now."

"Hgm," grunted the man as his body tensed and stiffened, becoming rock. The man's speed was only slightly affected by the increase in weight from his justu and with one fell swoop the two of them cleared three of the 5 prison's walls. Naruto heard the guards underneath them before he saw them. Faster than the Kumo ninja knew a crew of Naruto shadow clones fell through the sky and landed on top of them. Naruto and the Rock man cleared all of the fortified walls before the guards behind them were able to signal the two's continual flight.

Once they touched solid ground Naruto sent out another army of Naruto's, half of which transformed into the Rock man. The only sign of the Rock man's appreciation was his minute nod in approval. With a small hand signal from the original Naruto the pairs scattered.

The guards rushed in after them, not knowing they were about to take on an army.

"I found them," boomed a voice in the midst of static from over the radio a while later.

"I see them," answered a guard into their radio.

"Move in on three, eradicate them quickly, over," said the radio.

"Copy that," replied another guard.

"One…two… three, get in there!" barked the radio. With the slightest rustling four guards dropped from the branches above and surrounded the running pair.

"In the name of Kumo, stop your escape prisoners," demanded the guard running in front of the pair.

"No," plainly answered Naruto as he looked up from behind the Rock man's shoulder.

"Seize this fleeing, Ninja-san, and give yourselves up," stated the guard from the right.

"That hardly seems fair, two on four?" questioned the scratchy voice of the Rock man.

"Gokomatsu, I'm sure your just itching for a fight, aren't you?" slyly said the man running ahead of them. The fugitives stopped suddenly and the guards followed suit not understanding why the prisoners had paused in their escape. The rocky skinned man let Naruto slid to the ground so they could stand side by side.

"Kumo Ninja, are you trying to pick a fight with us?" asked Naruto as he looked around the group arms crossed and smile smug. The four guards grinned keenly behind their masks.

"We would never say such a thing-" began one guard before he was cut off. Another of the guards had thrown a punch towards Naruto's smirking face.

"Just to be clear, you started this fight, correct?" asked the Rock man identified as Gokomatsu.

"It doesn't matter now," called the guard on the left. Naruto and Gokomatsu easily dodged each and every punch that came sailing their way.

"It does matter, we refuse to fight any battle without knowing where the blame will be placed later," logically explained Gokomatsu.

"No, we won't be the reason that Kumo and Rock start a war," said the lead guard as he held up a hand to halt the fight, killing intent leaking into the air as the other's looked unwilling to following anyone's orders.

"Alright, then you'll have to let us pass," shrugged Naruto as he leaned against Gokomatsu. The lead guard's eyes narrowed as he witnessed this show of companionship. His mind filtering through all of the two prisoner's quirks that he knew.

The lead guard's hands flashed through a series of hand seals. Naruto and Gokomatsu watched panicked as a stream of lightening sailed at the two. In a cloud of smoke the two had disappeared.

"Clones are fair game," called out the lead guard. The other guards grinned; it was open season on any Naruto or Gokomatsu look-a-likes.

Hours elapsed and once all the clones had been found and dispersed with no real Naruto and Gokomatsu in tow, the guards gathered outside the front gate.

"Who's gonna tell the warden?" questioned one of the guards.

"Che- like anyone of us will be willing to tell the Warden his favorite prisoner just escaped?" asked one of the other sentries.

"What was that guard-san?" called a voice from behind the front gate. The guards all jumped in shock before they straightened out into their ranks, "What aren't you telling me?"

The man behind the gate had short gray hair and glared at the ranks, a severe look in his hard grey eyes.

"Gokomatsu and Ninja-san has escaped," reluctantly answered someone in the midst of the ranks, assured that the warden couldn't spot him in the crowd.

"Well…" said the gray haired man with a thoughtful look, "Which Ninja?"

The ranks looked at him confused. They still appeared reluctant to continue knowing that one of the missing prisoners had never even given them a name to call him.

"Just… Ninja-san," answered another lackey in the crowd. The gray haired man turned his stern look over everyone.

"I hope you don't expect me to do anything, I can't very well call in a report on a _Ninja_-san, that title is far too universal," shrugged the Warden.

"…and the other ninja, Gokomatsu?" someone spoke up hesitantly. The warden glared at him.

"Is there no body in Gokomatsu's grave?" questioned the Warden, knowing that Gokomatsu wasn't dumb enough to escape without a failsafe.

"Well there is, but the body is wearing Kumo's headband and looks remarkably like Haichi-san," the same person answered. The Warden gave them an unconcerned look.

"Then that must be Gokomatsu's body, minor details are of no interest to the Raikage," sternly lectured the Warden as he turned away from the ranks.

"Yes sir," parroted the ranks as they watched the Warden walk away.

The gray haired Warden smile was smug as he silently praised the ninjas that had escaped, _Good Luck out there Ninja-san._

A small cloud of smoke appeared in the tree lines which went unnoticed by all but the Warden. As he walked away the Warden whistled a happy tune that reverberated off of the prison walls.

* * *

Naruto sighed as the last of the dispelled clones memories leaked into his mind. Naruto felt his eye lids grow heavy from lose of blood; the Kyuubi's healing chakra had yet to start working.

"They've called off the search," muttered Naruto as his heavy head dropped onto the Rock man's shoulder.

"How do you know?" asked gruffly Gokomatsu as his form became squishier as muscle replaced stone.

"I don't exist, and you're in the grave, legally the Warden can't use up man power for something like that," mumbled Naruto as he closed his eyes.

"How?" asked Gokomatsu. Naruto's only response was to snore loudly in the ninja's ear.

* * *

"_Luckily we ran into a team heading for the Chuunin exams in Kumo…"_

_To be continued…_


	4. On the Border

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer**: _Owning nothing was never this much fun before…_

* * *

"_Luckily we ran into a team heading for the Chuunin exams in Kumo…"_

Naruto grumbled silently to himself in his rock cocoon, only his nose was exposed to the elements to allow for breathing consequentially leaving his bellyaching unheard. Originally his Iwa escorts had allowed his mouth to be uncovered, but instantly Naruto had loudly lamented being locked away and had to be silenced. Naruto was so angry he refused to listen as the Iwa nins attempted to explain that an injured ninja should not exert themselves at the risk of their own health.

If Naruto was thinking with a clearer head he would have been grateful to the group that they had run into by chance. Later when he was thinking without the haze of painkillers that he would be thankful there was a medic in the group and that they hadn't tried to attack them on sight. But at the moment Naruto could do nothing but replay the events of yesterday in his jumbled mind as the painkillers worked their magic.

* * *

Gokomatsu gently place Naruto down on one of the higher branches of the large oak tree, mindful of the kunai lodged in the boy's chest. They had run the whole afternoon before they finally crossed the border between Kumo and Iwa around nightfall. Gokomatsu and Naruto both looked worse for wear then they had only a few hours before. Gokomatsu was gasping for air while Naruto was worriedly looking down at the tender spot just above his heart. The Kyuubi's chakra hadn't kicked in yet, and Naruto was beginning to suspect that the kunai had been coated in an anticoagulative. Meanwhile Gokomatsu cursed the prison they had just escaped, which had done nothing to keep its ninja occupants in fighting and fit shape.

"You'll be lucky to make it until morning," muttered Gokomatsu as he watched Naruto finger the wound, testing for soreness. Naruto didn't comment as he looked up at the larger man.

"You don't look to good yourself," replied Naruto with a grin as he watched Gokomatsu pant, "I'll be fine, as soon as this kunai is out of my chest."

"You'd better wait until we reach a village and have a medic look at it," said Gokomatsu as he smacked Naruto's hand away from his wound. Naruto sighed and rested his head against the trunk of the tree.

"Where are we anyway?" asked Naruto as he looked over the edge of the branch to see a leafy ground below.

"The border of Iwa and Kumo," answered Gokomatsu, "I hoped that the Tsuchikage would be sending a patrol around here this month." Naruto sighed heavily in acceptance before looking towards Gokomatsu.

"Do you think that we should start a fire on the ground and set up camp?" asked Naruto.

"No good," said Gokomatsu with a shake of his head, "the mountain lions would smell your blood, we'd better stick to the trees."

"You mean there really are mountain lions around here?" asked Naruto in fright as he clutched the branch underneath him tightly seeking comfort from his grip. His panic was only accented by the sound of a breaking twig from the ground below. Gokomatsu gestured for Naruto to keep his mouth shut before silently and expertly climbing down the branches until he was closer to the ground. Ages went by while Gokomatsu was gone and so cautiously Naruto looked over the edge of the branch to see what was taking the mountain man so long.

Gokomatsu was on the lowest branch, watching a small boy. The boy was shaking like a leaf as he looked around the forest with wide, fear filled eyes, a shuriken in his hand and a headband around his neck.

"I heard voices, I swear," the boy was muttering, though Naruto heard it easily with his sensitive ears. Naruto watched as Gokomatsu dropped to the ground and instantly the boy cried out and flung his shuriken towards the shadow he created. The now weaponless boy slowly turned around to see Gokomatsu watching him while leaning against the trunk of the nearest tree. The boy cried out and dropped to his knees bowing deeply, begging for his life.

"Hgmm," grunted Gokomatsu as he scowled at the supplicating youth. The boy looked up with eyebrows drawn together.

"Gokomatsu-sama?" whispered the boy. Gokomatsu grunted again in reply and pushed himself away from the tree. The boy jumped to his feet and rushed towards Gokomatsu's side relieved. "I thought that you were a talking mountain lion."

"Idiot," said Gokomatsu as he dropped his hand on the boys shoulder, "why are you out here?"

"Me and my team qualified to go to the Chuunin exams in Kumo, I'm supposed to be guarding the camp, but I heard people talking, I'm glad that it's just you though Gokomatsu-sama," explained the boy in a rush.

"It wasn't me," said the man who could try into stone as he looked down and watched eager boy's enthusiasm deflate.

"What?" asked the boy in a small voice.

"How do you even know that I am who I say I am?" asked Gokomatsu as the boy paled and inched away from the older man.

"But… your Gokomatsu-sama," whimpered the boy as he looked up at the older ninja and as he looked into Gokomatsu's eyes his stance gained confidence, "I know that your Gokomatsu because you've got a scar right here." The boy walked towards Gokomatsu and pointed to the nearly invisible scar on Gokomatsu's collarbone, on the other side of his prison brand and number.

"Ffm," said Gokomatsu as the boy grinned in reply.

"So, it really wasn't you that was talking?" asked the boy as he worried his lower lip. Gokomatsu frowned but nodded all the same. "So we aren't all alone?" Gokomatsu shook his head as he looked up towards the eavesdropping Naruto. "What you looking at, Gokomatsu-sama?" The boy followed Gokomatsu's gaze up the tree and on to the spying blond, the boy gave a shriek in fright, tumbled to the ground, and crawled behind Gokomatsu's larger mass.

"Can I come down now?" called out Naruto when he heard the lull in the conversation. Gokomatsu hopped up to the branch that housed the blond and escorted him to the ground without many problems. The boy gaped at the kunai in the blond's chest and then up at Gokomatsu.

"He isn't a bad guy is he?" asked the youth as he watched Gokomatsu put Naruto on the ground. Naruto adamantly shook his head trying to prove to the boy his innocence by the persistence of shaking his head.

"Can you show us to camp?" asked Gokomatsu as he looked down at Naruto and than the boy, "he needs first aid."

"Yeah, alright sure, it's this way Gokomatsu-sama," said the boy as he led the way to a clearing a short walk from where Gokomatsu and Naruto had stopped to rest. When they made it to camp a few of the genin's Jounin escorts were up and armed, ready for battle as soon as they felt the trio approach camp. The Jounin relaxed upon seeing Gokomatsu appear through the brush, knowing instantly that it was him by the unique ting of his chakra.

"Gokomatsu," said one of the Jounin, "what happened?" The Jounin all gathered around Gokomatsu, Naruto, and the Chuunin hopeful.

"Rough mission, I'm glad you're here Jiro, this kid could really use a medic," said Gokomatsu.

"Obviously," muttered Jiro the medic as he circled around Naruto, his weary eyes searching the boy for anymore injuries before finally leading Naruto to a small camp tent off to the side. He showed Naruto to a small cot and forced the boy to sit down and relax.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" asked Naruto as he resisted the man pulling him down.

"How did you manage to get this stuck in your chest, and still be living hours later?" asked the intuitive medic ignoring Naruto's question. Naruto rolled his eyes, and refrained from answering not knowing what he was at liberty to divulge.

"Ah closed mouthed are you? I suppose I could just ask Gokomatsu…" the doctor said with a raised eyebrow. Naruto shrugged as he yawned and leaned back into the cot and closed his eyes while Jiro probed the area around the wound. He might not want to be there, but the cot was so comfy and he was so tried.

"Do what you gotta do, old man," said Naruto. The 'Old Man' bristled at Naruto comment and put too much force on a bruised area around the injury making Naruto hiss slightly at the extra pressure.

"I'm not old," said the doctor with a scowl as he retracted a syringe from the boy's chest.

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Naruto with a yawn, "I've heard the speech all before."

"Really?" asked Jiro letting only a hint of amusement leak into his tone as he listened to the boy's unintelligent muttering about someone named Sakura who had talking fists, a boy that was eaten by a garter snake, and a dog sensei. Naruto opened his eyes to see if the man was still listening and found that he wasn't.

"Hey, old man, what you doing?" asked Naruto sleepily.

"Nothing of importance, just waiting for the drugs to work," answered Jiro with a smile.

"What drugs?" asked Naruto as he watched Jiro lean back on the balls of his feet remaining determinedly silent. Naruto again closed his eyes but not before watching Jiro reach to a tray set up beside him. Naruto shuddered imagining the tray filled with various sharp and shinny medical instruments.

Jiro waited for Naruto's muttering to become more incoherent before gripping the protruding kunai in one hand and gauze in the other. With a deep breath Jiro yanked hard on the kunai and with a sickening squelch the kunai easily slipped out of the boy's chest, Jiro acted fast and pressed down the gauze in order to stop the pooling blood.

The dazed Naruto only acknowledged the pain with a minute wince. His mind dancing distractedly with day-dreams of dancing bowls of ramen and Sakura dressed as a panda.

At one point the drugged Naruto had fallen into a noisy sleep while the medic was dressing his wound. When he woke up hours later it was to find himself in the rock cocoon on his way to where ever the Iwa nins called home in order for him to receive better medical care.

The group of chuunin hopefuls was able to spare one of their guards to accompany Naruto and Gokomatsu safely to Iwa. They traveled swiftly and in no time they reached Iwa. They got through the gate with no problem and their Jounin guard escorted the two to the hospital and Naruto was not happy about it.

The doctors checked the two in instantly and went to work to fix the escapees up. At first Naruto struggled, he always hated hospitals, but with some persuasion from the medical staff (which consisted of rope and ramen) the boy calmed down and was subjected to multiple test, operations, and drugs for the 'pain'.

In all nothing spectacular happened to Naruto that day well except for one odd phenomenon.

It was during an intermission from tests and operations, in which Naruto was happily slurping up some hospital pudding through a straw (since his hands were tied to the bars of his bed) when a strange nin came in. The nin had paused in the door way and stared at Naruto in shock. Naruto squinted his eyes as he observed the man's reaction. The nin was older with black hair and a mess of scars on his neck and jaw line. Naruto grimaced; the man looked like he had been in one of the Great Ninja Wars.

"Um… Nin…Ninja-san," stuttered the smoky voiced nin, as he entered the room all the way, shutting the door behind him. Naruto tilted his head, he recognized the look in the man's eyes, but his drug fogged mind wasn't connecting any dots.

"Are you my doctor?" asked Naruto as the straw in his mouth dropped onto the table. Naruto broke eye-contact with the man to pout at the utensil.

"No, no, I'm one of the clerks from out front," breathlessly answered the man. Naruto gave the man a puzzled look.

"Why are you here?" questioned Naruto roughly. The man looked around nervously before he approached closer to Naruto's bedside.

"I need you to fill out some paper work," quickly started the man before he took a deep breath and finished slower, "the Nurses however refuse to let your hands free and so I was hoping to help you fill it out."

Naruto didn't question the older man, although something about his appearance in the room seemed odd, and out of place. But Naruto didn't feel safe on questioning the man's job, after all he wasn't Sakura or Granny Tsunade, he didn't know how hospitals worked.

"Name?" asked the man. As he asked Naruto looked out the small window and was distracted as a bird that he had never seen fly in the sky and Naruto couldn't help but wonder about its origins in his drug induced curiosity. The man shifted awkwardly and after a few moments of waiting for Naruto's reply wrote '_Unknown_' nervously in the space for his name.

"No? Then, home country?" asked the man again. Naruto wasn't paying attention as he thought of ways to obtain the straw from where it had fallen so he could finish off the pudding, he was_ starving_. The 'clerk' quickly wrote down '_Unknown_'.

"Alright, how about… occupation?" asked the man. Naruto was about to answer his question but a loud noise from above him made him jump in surprise and the boy glared at the ceiling forgetting to answer the flustered man's question. The man gulped and wrote '_N/A_' in the blank space.

The rest of the conversation went in much the same way. There were a few questions Naruto would answer but more often than not the man was left wanting. Most of the interview passed with the man asking a question and Naruto becoming distracted by something or the other and the man too discomforted by Naruto would quickly write down most blanks as a negative.

"Ninja-san," whispered the man, he wasn't entirely sure how else to address the man, and when Naruto looked up the man held up a Polaroid Camera, "May I take a picture for the archive?"

A foxy grin spread on Naruto's face, and he quickly agreed, he loved posing for photos.

* * *

Somewhere in the midst of a mountain, where a maze of corridors and halls had been erected, a man sat in a dark room with a single candle and a lone folder. The man was covered in a floor-length green robe with yellow boarders, and a red ribbed collar. His head was decorated by a brown conical hat with kanji that wrote 'Tsuchikage' in black ink on the front.

Despite the fact that his face was shadowed by his traditional hat, it was clear to all within 100 yards that the Kage was not happy. He was glowering at the lackluster report which contained barely any information in his hands in anger. Besides the report inside the manila folder lie a short medical write up and 2 small Polaroid pictures harmlessly staring back at him.

The first picture was of a youthful blond with blue eyes and a mischievous smile lying in a hospital bed with his hands and legs tied to the bars of the bed. While the other was a snap shot of a more serious youth, with blond hair, blue eyes and a three pronged shuriken aimed at the viewer taken about 20 years ago. The second one was dangerous and the Kage suspected the first might prove to be as well.

The Kage quaked in fright at the implications that the photos bared witness too. He needed to get rid of the youth currently residing in Iwa's Main Hospital for Ninjas, and quickly.

With a gruff exclamation the Kage stood up from his seat and exited the small office. The candle that was at the corner of his desk was blown out by a gust of dry air as he swept past. The man picked his way through the mountains maze of halls and passageways a brash plan taking form in his shape mind.

* * *

"_Somehow the Kage heard about me and promised to help get me in fighting shape…"_

_To be continued…_


	5. A Town in Peril

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaime**r**:**_Same as always guys… seriously, :(_

* * *

"_Somehow the Kage heard about me and promised to help get me in fighting shape…"_

Naruto stared, glistening drops gathered in the corner of his eyes as he yawned, his gaze never wavering from its spot on the ceiling. Thanks to the tenant in his belly the stitches that held the skin of his chest together had healed over and as the pain lessened the more fidgety he got. Naruto was contemplating the pros and cons of leaving the foreign hospital without giving the nurses notice when the door to his room opened.

Naruto turned his glazed eyes over to the doorway to observe a parade of men enter his room wordlessly. In the midst of darkly clothed ANBU stood a man wearing a traditional Kage hat and an odd green robe with a red ribbed collar. The newly arrived men piqued Naruto's curiosity; he wondered why they were in his room of all places.

"Hey you guys get lost?" asked Naruto as he looked them over with apathetic eyes; he might be interested, but they were doing nothing to distract him from his boredom.

"No, we were looking for you," said the Kage as he advanced into the room, his gaggle of bodyguards mutely following his every move. Naruto shrugged before returning to ogle the spot above him, his eyes trailing a crack in the ceiling.

"Why?" asked Naruto in a tone with no inflection, a timbre he had heard Gaara use multiple times.

"I am the Tsuchikage of this land," started the Kage, "and as such I would like to personally thank-you for helping one of my elite Jounin in his mission. The mission you assisted in was crucial to the protection of this country."

"You gave Gokomatsu a mission to be captured by enemy nin?" asked Naruto, his eyebrows drawn together as he gawked at the Kage horrified.

"I gave him a mission to _escape_ enemy nin, it was a simple information gathering mission, you as a ninja, must understand its importance," explained the Kage.

"No, I don't, not really," answered Naruto with a shake of his head. The Kage glared when he was sure that Naruto couldn't see him.

"Anyway," interrupted the impatient Kage, "as thanks for your help, I'm prepared to help you in some way."

"Like what? Are you going to teach me some super awesome Justus? Like the Rock blanket thing that Gokomatsu uses? Or-," began Naruto excitedly, the earlier apathy in his eyes disappearing. Naruto was bouncing in his spot as much as his bound hands and legs allowed.

"Well no… but," the Kage paused, his mind scrambling for something to say, when Naruto interrupted.

"Are you gonna help me become the best ninja that this world has ever seen?" asked Naruto with a foxy grin. Although, Naruto's mind was mostly centered on learning Gokomatsu's rock cocoon jutsu for himself, he made sure to continue negotiating with the Kage, maybe he could slip that into the arrangement later.

"If you want to become a better ninja, first you have to get healthy," said the Kage in triumph.

"I am healthy," scowled Naruto, "my chest is already all healed up, and I've got tons of energy."

"Ah, but your body is not in tip top shape," explained the Kage in a calm tone that belied his internal anxiety. _'Healed already! Impossible,'_ thought the Kage as he smiled outwardly towards the blond youth.

"What do you mean?" asked an overly concerned Naruto. He gave the Kage pleading eyes as he looked up at the man, surely he could force the Kyuubi to do something to help him if he just knew what was wrong.

"Some of the tests that the doctors ran on you showed an unusual illness that might be in the way of your performance as a ninja," smoothly deceived the Kage. Outwardly the Kage showed none of his apprehension but inwardly the man was a shaking pile of mush, waiting to get the dangerous boy out of his lands.

"What? What kind of illness," asked the panicked Naruto his hands and feet fighting its bindings, loosening the rope just enough for Naruto's limbs to escape their fastenings.

"Noth-Nothing serious," stuttered the Kage as he watched with shrouded eyes, alarm rising while his heart felt as though it was trying to escape and constrict at the same time.

"But if there's something wrong with me then I won't be able to make Kage!" shouted the frightful boy. The Tsuchikage's body shook minimally in fear; he just hoped that he never got on the wrong side of this boy if he did become a Kage. He _really_ hoped this boy wasn't another Yondaime Hokage.

"It's just that…" the Kage paused; he thought frantically of an illness that could potentially render a ninja's skills destitute that was also easily fixed, but wasn't treatable in Iwa.

"What…?" paused Naruto, he looked towards the Kage searchingly.

"I can't really explain this to you properly," stated the rushed Kage wringing his hands together behind his back.

"Well then who can?" asked Naruto. The Kage looked over at his masked bodyguards, an idea taking form.

"Your doctor should be able to explain it to you better," jubilantly said the Kage. Naruto nodded in understanding as he swung his freshly released feet over the side of the bed, the Kage started in distress.

"Alright let's go find him," cheerfully said the stir crazed blond. The Kage thought fast.

"No, no, the doctors would not approve of such behavior," coaxed the Kage as he gently shoved Naruto's feet back onto the bed while he fought to conceal the way his lips twisted in disgust as he touched the teen, "let me send one of these guards to inform the doctor of the… _situation_."

"I will go, Tsuchikage-sama," bowed a masked ANBU. The Kage nodded his approval.

"Make sure you inform the doctor… of _everything_," ordered the Kage brusquely. The ANBU bowed once more and disappeared from the room leaving not even a trace of residue chakra in the room. The Kage and Naruto waited in awkward silence, staring at one another, the tension in the room mounting. The soft click of the door opening was the only announcement of someone entering the room that went unnoticed by both Naruto and the Kage.

"Your body is in a state of severe under nutrition, Ninja-san," quickly began a voice from over towards the doorway without preamble. The Kage and Naruto looked around trying to locate the owner of the voice. All they saw was a lanky, brown haired, bespectacled man in a lab coat holding a metal clip board.

"What is that?" asked Naruto as he crossed his freed arms, his alarm totally gone as he pondered the doctor's statement.

"Under nutrition is a form of Malnutrition, this means your body hasn't been getting the right amount of nutrients and so it can't function like it should," explained the doctor as he joined the Kage at Naruto's bedside.

"How do I make it better, so that it doesn't affect my ninja skills?" asked Naruto in unease.

"Well a simple nutritional supplement taken at regular intervals is all that's necessary," explained the doctor. Naruto was nodding excitedly; after all he would do anything that would help him become a Kage. The Tsuchikage however was glaring at the doctor, sending small shocks of killing intent, which the doctor seemed immune too.

"Alright Doc!" shouted Naruto, "Get me some of this sup-supple-…stuff."

"I wish I could, despite Iwa being rich in minerals, our land cannot provide the proteins and vitamins these supplements need," explained the doctor in a mournful tone. Naruto's excitement instantly deflated.

"Then what do I do?" asked Naruto in a small voice. The doctor straightened his glasses and stood up to his full height as he looked down at Naruto.

"You're charts say that you are almost in traveling condition," informed the doctor. Naruto nodded not really understanding what the doctor's was saying.

"What does that mean?" asked the irate Kage.

"What I mean to say is that Ninja-san, with another day or so of rest, will be well enough to travel to Tea Country in order to receive the proper care that his condition requires," stated the doctor as he stared indifferently at his Kage. The Kage smiled inwardly, silently promising to raise the doctor's salary when he found the time or at least give him some reward.

"How do I get to Tea Country?" seriously asked Naruto, his eyebrows drawn together and his eyes squinted in thought.

"I'll have some of our elite escort you to Tea," eagerly said the Kage, "It's the least I can do."

"Thanks old-man," graciously said Naruto, as the worry in his eyes was replaced by cheer. The Kage visibly bristled at the boys careless words, but the boy took no notice.

So within two days, Naruto was discharged from the hospital dressed in the clothes that the Tsuchikage had gifted him for the trip, two of Iwa's elite escorting him out of the city and the Kage hoped out of the land without causing any trouble. The Kage was already breathing easier as he watched the foreign nin and his escorts pass through the gates of the city's wall from the built in terrace of his mountain headquarters, a smirk of victory on his shrouded face.

* * *

It was night time before Naruto and his two Iwa escorts made it to a small resort city just a mile inside of Tea's border. Naruto was huffing and pouting by the time they arrived. Sever disappointment on his face as he looked over the tiny village that was nothing spectacular, unlike Konoha. His mood wasn't helped by the elite not saying a word to him, even after he had told them his best prank and funniest joke.

With Naruto's gloomy attitude he was being rebellious, and would not listen to the silent directions of his bodyguards. He jumped down from his spot on the tallest tree branch and blatantly walked towards the sleeping town, ready to find an inn to retire to for the night. He was breaking one of the key rules of being a ninja, 'Never be seen.' Naruto frowned grumpily as he noted that even as he walked directly into town no one took any notice of him (not that anyone was in the streets) and cursed that his orange jumpsuit was back on the bank of the man eating fish's river.

Naruto knew the moment his bodyguards began to follow him from the rooftops, always out of sight. With a reinforced pout Naruto looked around the city that probably looked similar to the one that would cure his malnourished body. Only a few street lamps were on to guide the late night stragglers through the desolate streets.

Noiselessly his bodyguards descended from their perches and stood by his side, staring intently over towards the side of the street. One reached over and put their hand over Naruto's mouth to keep the blond from crying out. Naruto bite down on the gloved hand, hard, the ninja retracted his hand and made a face underneath his mask.

"Hey what's the big idea?" cried Naruto in a whisper. The Iwa nin didn't realize how lucky they were that Naruto had assessed the situation and lowered his voice accordingly.

"Shh!" said the other Iwa nin as he gestured down the street were shadow's danced on the wall from an unseen street light just around the corner. Naruto was intrigued as he ran a hand over his lips to illustrate that they were sealed before taking to the rooftops, his bodyguards beside him. He crept close to the edge of the building repressing as much of his charka as he could. He was surprised that his strict bodyguards did nothing to stop him as they too leaned over to see what the commotion was about.

Down on the cobble stone street was a band of rogue nin, their headbands gleamed in the moonlight showing their status as rogues to all around. In the midst of the rogues laid the crumpled figure of an old man with a balding head and a wild beard. A girl sat hunched over, the man's head in her lap shielding the older man from the deft and painful blows the rogue nin delivered to the two figures. Naruto had to bite his bottom lip to stop from crying out at the injustice, but the rogue nin were of unknown strength and rank, despite his past foolhardy ways Naruto had developed a small portion of common sense, not that he used it very often.

"Well girly, you willing to tell us now why you're out past curfew?" cruelly questioned one nin as he twined his fist in the girl's long green hair forcing her to look up at him. The girl cried out in pain and continued to survey the dirt underneath the rogue's feet.

"I told yo-you," stammered the girl as the nin yanked on her hair, "me and my-y father wer-re working late in the fields."

"Now girl, what do you take us for?" smirked the rogue nin as he dropped the girl and spat on her father's broken body. Just as the girl backed away from the hostile nin another rogue came crashing down in the midst of the crowd, his breathing labored. His face was mostly covered by a dark blue cloth, only his eyes were left uncovered while his raven colored hair snuck out from underneath its wrapping. The new nin sneered at the nin that had had the girl's hair in his fists and turned his attention to the rest of the group.

"Yuudai-sama is calling everyone back," roughly said the new nin as his eyes locked with the lead nin, "that includes you Mamoru and your gang." Mamoru glowered at the nin but wordlessly gestured to his group before they all flickered away, leaving the girl, her father, and the messenger behind.

"Irie-chan, are you alright?" whispered the nin as he bent down by her side. The girl nodded with a tentative, pain-filled smile that had the messenger sighing in relief before turning his attention to the rooftops.

"Come on out," called the messenger with a scowl as he desperately scoured the roofs looking for the eavesdroppers. With a look to his bodyguards Naruto stood and jumped down to face the lone messenger and the rogues' victims. Behind him his bodyguards remained hidden atop the building, waiting in the shadows as Naruto's back up.

"Yo," said Naruto with a wave imitating his Jounin-sensei as he stood up from his crouch. The messenger was on edge as he looked over the blond and then back down to the injured girl and her unconscious father. He straightened up and stood in front of the two protectively.

"Did Yuudai send you here to keep an eye on me?" bitterly asked the messenger as he helped the girl to her feet and took the unconscious man in his arms, carefully placed him over his shoulder as he seemed to acknowledge Naruto was no threat, after all the blond didn't even have a headband on his person meaning he wasn't a ninja. Naruto looked on confused as he approached the trio and steadied the wobbly girl that the messenger had neglected in order to attend to the older man.

"No, I was just traveling through the area, but I noticed the… oddness of this town and after that the riot," answered Naruto truthfully as the messenger glared at the boy, Naruto didn't understand what he had done to upset the messenger.

"When were you planning on helping Irie out then?" asked the angry messenger, "or where you planning on sitting and watching idly by while those rogues beat her and her father to death?" Naruto gapped at the messenger, for once in his life entirely without a proper response and cursing his newly formed common sense.

"Kiyoshi stop," demanded the staggering girl as she rested a reassuring and steadying hand on the messenger, "I'm sorry about what he said; he's just overprotective of me."

"No he's right, I really should have stopped them earlier…" said Naruto with an introspective frown.

"And end up in Yuudai's prison?" reprimanded Irie before a smile graced her lips, "have you any place to stay the night?"

"Irie! You can't just take total strangers into your house, what if Yuudai finds out that you're housing a foreigner?" lectured Kiyoshi as he whirled angrily towards the girl, his tone almost hiding the hint of fear in his eyes, but Naruto noticed all the same and observed the rogue with an air of contemplativeness. Irie frowned disapprovingly towards him, boldly ignoring his complaints as she addressed Naruto once again.

"The offer still stands, your friends can come too," said Irie as she nodded her head in the direction that Naruto had come from. Naruto smiled coyly at the girl and looked over towards the rooftop his two bodyguards had concealed themselves.

"How'd you know they where there?" asked Naruto as he looked back at the girl.

"I can sense people's presence," explained the girl, "chakra can be suppressed, but a person's presence cannot."

"That's why those nins were hunting Irie and her father," snipped Kiyoshi, "Yuudai is trying to break down Irie, hoping that one day she'll break down and agree to use her ability for him, but she refuses." Kiyoshi's eyes shone with pride as he looked towards the green haired girl.

"So are your friends coming, or what?" asked Irie with a kind smile towards the caring Kiyoshi and bemused Naruto.

"They aren't exactly my friends, but if you're sure you wouldn't mind?" asked Naruto, already forming plans on keeping the girl and her father safe, Naruto looked over his shoulder to address his guards, "is that alright with you two?" Their reply was to join the group, standing on either side of Naruto.

"We'd better hurry, the night patrol is going to be back soon," said Kiyoshi as he looked down the road worriedly and leading Irie down the road towards the outskirts of town, the old man laying over his shoulder. Naruto looked towards his guards, with a nod the three blended in the shadows, tailing the trio. They remained on the lookout for the night patrol that Kiyoshi had mentioned.

* * *

In the morning Naruto and his guards learned about the town's unique situation. Irie was tending her comatose father, the three guests dwelled nearby ready to assist should they be needed.

"The town wasn't always like this you know," said Irie as she pressed a cold compress to her father's forehead, "it wasn't until Yuudai-sama started illegal peddling."

"Who is this Yuudai person?" asked Naruto, the voice of his group as the Iwa nin refused to speak a word, "you and that Kiyoshi guy mentioned him last night too."

"Yuudai-sama is the town's mayor… well it's more like our dictator now," said Irie, "he was always looking for ways to get more money through our town's resources. You see we have very fertile soil for farming as well as multiple natural springs that tourists are attracted to."

"If this town is great for tourism then how come there aren't hotels or tourist-y places for them?" asked Naruto, his eyebrows drawn together as he listened to the girl's tale.

"There used to be some, but Yuudai-sama began to neglect the town and its buildings started to fall apart as he turned his attention to another business one that was more _economically stimulating_," softly scoffed Irie as she sat back on her heels, her mind far away as she absentmindedly clenched and unclenched the damp rag in her hands.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto as he looked towards the girl, he tried to draw her attention away from her troubled thoughts by waving his hands in front of her face. "hey, you there?"

"Yeah, sorry," said Irie as she shook her head to clear her mind, "what were you asking?"

"What business Yuudai got involved in?" questioned Naruto as he turned towards the girl.

"Oh," said Irie as she blinked towards Naruto, "Yuudai began to deal with the trade of rogue nin." The Iwa nins seemed to understand the severity of the situation as they shifted uncomfortably but Naruto looked on, mystified.

"That business makes money?" asked Naruto with eyes squinted and head tilted, "who would want to hire rogue nins when they can have real ninjas?"

"Rogue nins are not held down by the law, Ninja-san," said one Iwa nin speaking up for the first time, while the other nodded.

"Eh?" said Naruto, "so these rogue nins are doing illegal things for the guys who hire them?"

"Most the time yes, rogue nins are cheaper than real ninja which is ideal for the crooks of the world," said the second Iwa nin. Naruto nodded his thoughts drifting back to Zabuza and Gato.

"Ah ha!" said Naruto as he dropped his fist into his open palm, "that's why there were so many rogue nins last night." The two Iwa nins shared a baffled look, _'Is he just now realizing that?' _they pondered.

"Kiyoshi-kun was from the Bloody Mist, but he left when he was only eleven and stumbled on to our farm, He's been a part of our family ever since," said Irie with a nostalgic grin, she wanted the three ninja before her to understand her friends actions, "somehow Yuudai-sama found out about his past and blackmailed him into working for him."

"Well I guess there's only one thing to do," said Naruto with a shrug appearing determined to all those in the small house. The Iwa nins and Irie shared a bewildered look as they waited for the boy to expound. Naruto stood up, stretching out his muscles before turning back towards the quartet.

"What's that Ninja-san?" asked Irie, using the endearment she had taken to calling the mysterious ninja. Naruto looked around the small one room wooden shack.

"We've got to stop Yuudai," said Naruto as his lips twisted into a foxy grin that promised plotting, "tell us a little more about him…"

* * *

Naruto crouched lower in the bushes, looking through clusters of branches and leaves. Through the brush he was able to easily watch a group of rogue nins around a battered table playing a game of poker. They seemed to be out of real poker chips but replaced the shortage by betting their kunai and shuriken. They only half-heartedly went about their assigned job of guarding the giant gates behind them, and Naruto was grateful. His smirk and the cross of his fingers were the only indication something was about to happen as his form disappeared in a short puff of smoke, the focused nins didn't stir at the disturbance. While Naruto was celebrating his subtly a small black striped snake slithered in the area and across Naruto's hand. The boy recoiled from the reptile as though it burned him with a soft cry that drew the distracted nins attention to the foliage.

"Hey, who's there?" cried out one of the guards as he jumped up and upset the table, making the kunai and shuriken poker chips scatter on the ground and causing the table to tip over and land on its side. Naruto hid a smile at their incompetence, his mind whirling with ways to cover his blunder, Without fully figuring out a plan he stumbled out of the bushes with a look of feigned confusion. The rest of the rogue nins shared a smile as a river of blood steadily streamed from their nostrils.

"Oh, it's just a girl," said one of the older nins that hadn't been affected as long as the others when the teary eyed blond toed the ground, face tinged a pretty pink in embarrassment. Naruto stood in a skimpily dressed form of his Sexy no Jutsu before he looked up feigning shock as he rushed over to help the rogues pick up the downed weapons. He looked around and while they weren't looking he easily pinched more than a few of their weapons.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing!" called out a nin. Naruto and the other guards froze, watching the man race out of the gated complex. The man glared at his subordinates before realizing that Naruto was there and gave the blond a perverted smile, "lazing about and what's this? Leaving a beautiful woman unattended?" The rogues all gave the new nin the proper repentant look that didn't reach their eyes. They were quickly forgotten as the new nin turned lustful eyes onto Naruto. "I'm so sorry about these… these Neanderthals, but what are you doing in a place like this?" Naruto gave his best flirtatious smile while rushing to the new nin and tackled him in a hug.

"I'm so glad I finally found someone! I've been lost for days trying to find the hot springs," cried Naruto as he rubbed his cheek on the nin's, "Please you must help me!"

"Well… I'm sorry to hear such a thing could happen to such a gorgeous woman, please come into the house, I'm sure that my boss will be able to help you," said the nin with a smile that would have been charming if it wasn't so sleazy. Naruto did his best to appear grateful instead of triumphant as the nin led him into the house, around a series of hallways, and up a staircase before they ended up in an office on the second story. The office was large and simple with only the desk in the middle of the room, just behind that was a floor-to-ceiling length window while some inked scrolls hung on the walls. Naruto had been expecting something more gaudy and expensive, and hoped that the room was filled enough to accomplish his portion of the plan.

"Goro, why do you interrupt me?" asked a man with thinning gray hair that was combed over to hide a painfully obvious bald spot. The man behind the desk was dressed in a boring business suit paying no mind to anything but the crossword in front of him.

"I'm sorry Yuudai-sama, but this lady got lost in the woods and was wondering if you could help," said Goro as he gave another sleazy smile towards Naruto and bowed out of the room, leaving Naruto alone with the feared leader.

"Girl?" muttered Yuudai as he looked up from his puzzle to ascertain that Naruto was really there and instantly the leader shot up from behind his desk. He gave Naruto a slimy smile as his eyes drank in the blond's figure greedily. Naruto wrinkled his nose in disgust when Yuudai temporarily turned his back to the blond as he approached a cabinet hidden inside of the wall beside his desk that Naruto hadn't noticed earlier. "Please, sit down; would you like a glass of sake? It's one of the best in all of Tea."

"Are you sure you don't mind wasting such an expensive drink on me?" asked Naruto as he fluttered his eyes seductively and innocently. As a ninja he knew that now would have been the best time to poison the leader and get out of there before anyone realized what happened, but as a prankster he knew that it wasn't a part of the master plan.

"I'd waste every drop if it meant you would share it with me," said the short man as he placed the saucer of alcohol before Naruto. Naruto giggled and smiled sweetly at the leader while silently pleading for the Iwa nin to accomplish their task quickly.

It was a few hours and a few bottles of sake later when Yuudai was properly smashed and feeling rather hands-y that a rogue nin came rushing in the room his face sour.

"Yuudai-sama," began the rogue as he watched his clumsy leader trying to sit up from Naruto's lap without losing a drop of sake from his empty saucer, "the vault in the basement…"

"Whaddah 'bout it?" slurred Yuudai as shakily stood up with the help of Naruto. The only evidence that Naruto had drunken a drop of the sake was the flush of his cheeks but otherwise his movements where sure and his mind clear.

"It's been broken into, all of the gold in it is gone," said the rogue. Yuudai sobered slightly and colorfully cursed the thief before asking how it had happened. "We don't know what happened, all the guards protecting the safe were found either dead or unconscious at the scene of the crime, and those knocked out have yet to awaken."

"Take me to the vault," ordered Yuudai but the rogue didn't seem to have any intention of helping the old man, "now!" The rogue sighed and walked over to the leader to act as his crutch. The two headed out the door but before Yuudai had left entirely he turned around and addressed the blond "I'll be ba-ack in juss a mumment, sweetcakes." With that announced the two rushed towards the vault, leaving the blond alone. Once they had disappeared around the corner the busty blond disappeared with a small poof, a cloud of smoke, and a sigh of relief.

A few hours later while Yuudai was out of the house trying his hand at unsuccessfully tracking down the thief that had stolen his entire life's savings and the girl that had disappeared, a hurried beeping began to blare from the ceiling of the leader's office. Just as suddenly as the beeping had begun it stopped. Silence reined in the room for only a few seconds before a ball of fire engulfed the upper level of the mansion, and before long the top floor collapsed from the increased pressure of the fire. The fire died down after a day or two and took with it multiple priceless artifacts and more than a few lives, leaving the mansion's owner to stand by watching his life being destroyed in the billows of black smoke.

* * *

"_Yuudai-sama has many faults," Irie had told them, "one of which is his weakness for beautiful women, he will ignore any sense in the face of a beautiful, youthful girl, another…" The Iwa nins and Naruto sat by and listened as Irie told them about her town's dictator's shortcomings._

"_His power?" Naruto had asked as he looked towards Irie thoughtfully, "what makes the rogues' follow him?"_

"_His money, the rogues' would do anything he says so long as they get their paycheck," replied Irie spitefully, "but he protects his wealth well with his highest level rogues guarding it at all times."_

"_Good," said Naruto with a smile as he turned to Irie, "you'll have your village back soon."_

* * *

It only took a few days before the remaining rogue nins began to rebel against the man who once served as their cash cow. They left the village in flocks in the middle of the night, leaving the leader unprotected and unprepared when the villagers came to overthrow him, casting him out of the village for good. Naruto and the Iwa nins watched from Irie's hut as the town slowly began to rebuild itself with a mysterious donation of gold bars that had appeared the night before, the very next day after Yuudai had been exiled.

"Ninja-san, thank-you so much for helping our village," said Irie was she smiled at the blond, "is there anything that we can do for you?"

"Actually you wouldn't happen to have any supple-stuff to treat…" Naruto began drawing a blank as to the name of his mysterious illness.

"Malnutrition," said one of his Iwa guards. Naruto nodded furiously as he looked pleadingly up at Irie.

"I think the Doctor should have some supplements, but wouldn't it be easier just to start eating healthier?" asked Irie. Naruto looked at her as though she had spoken a foreign language while the world around him was beginning to crumble.

"I think the supplements are all he needs," said another of his Iwa guards as guilty look crossed between one another. Naruto nodded, happy that the world made sense and that he didn't travel all the way to Tea just to be advised to eat healthier. Irie nodded and promised Naruto that she would make an appointment with the doctor right away.

"Doctor?" asked Naruto with a frown, "again? Can't you just give me the medicine?"

"No, the doctor needs to examine you so that he knows the right amounts of vitamins and minerals to give you," explained Irie with a smile as she left the shack to go to town to see the doctor, "now come on, maybe he can get you in today." Naruto exhaled a longsuffering sigh before following after the girl all the while dragging his feet and muttering underneath his breath.

* * *

"Ninja-san, are you sure you'll be alright on your own?" asked Irie. A small group of villagers stood on the road waiting to say their goodbyes to the lone traveler and their savior.

"Yeah, I can take care of myself," said Naruto as he waved off her concern.

"Maybe your guards should have stuck around to help you get home," said Irie as she looked down the road the Iwa nins had disappeared on earlier that day.

"They had to get home, besides I know where I'm going!" said Naruto with a disarming smile, "I've got an awesome sense of direction."

"Alright, but here take this," said Irie as she held out a brown pouch filled with gold coins, "as payment for saving our village from that tyrant." Naruto gratefully took the pouch but frowned when he looked inside. He counted out a handful of coins, _'Enough to get back to Konoha,'_reasoned Naruto as he handed the rest back.

"That's way too much," said Naruto shaking his head. Irie looked back towards the villagers and then gave Naruto the _look_.

"Ninja-san," she began hands on her hips, defying his wishes.

"Just take the money already," muttered Kiyoshi from where he stood silently beside Irie, recalcitrant and glowered at Naruto, "we don't need it."

"Kiyoshi-kun... thank you," beamed Irie as she held out the pouch for Naruto to take. Naruto wearily looked at the pouch, the bag weighed a ton and having it on his person would only attract the wrong attention. Thinking quickly, Naruto brainstormed a way out of taking the dangerous pouch on his travels.

"How about this, you can send the money to Konoha, and tell them that it's payment for using one of their wandering ninja!" said Naruto as he held out his hands to indicate that it was up to them, silently he was patting himself on the back for coming up with such a great resolution, "that way you can get rid of the money and I don't have to carry it around!"

"Konoha?" asked Irie as she hugged the coins to her chest, but nodded anyway, "we'll send our fastest flier tomorrow, with a note and the money."

"Great!" said Naruto with a foxy grin, he waved to the group of villagers as he began to walk down the road, and when the town disappeared over the hill he finally turned around, facing the road in front of him to begin his trek home.

* * *

"_I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere…"_

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N: So I tried to be as accurate as I could with the description of Malnutrition, but if I was in any way wrong, please forgive me.**


	6. A Festival and a Message

** Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **_Don't own a thing…_

* * *

"_I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere…"_

Red paper lanterns were strung crisscrossing on the buildings above. The whole town was crowded with people of all ages celebrating and having fun at the festival around them, all dressed in their finest kimono's of all designs and colors. Booths had been raised along the sides of the streets advertising games and different wares, from jewelry to clothes to wind chimes.

Naruto's blond hair stuck out in the crowd from amongst the other more common browns and blacks of the seafaring town. Naruto wasn't entirely sure how he had ended up in the town seeing as he had started southwest from Konoha and now he was east of it but at the moment he wasn't worried as he walked down the road, happily mingling with the crowd. The town he was in was in the middle of a festival celebrating the beginning of Spring and ever since Naruto was young he never had much of an opportunity to enjoy the ones in Konoha so while he could he was soaking up the fun of the current affair.

He was rather close to using up the whole of the money he had taken as payment for helping Irie and her town by playing games and buying items from the booths. He even found a booth that sold a plethora of orange wears, conveniently found at the back of the small tented area, inside some dusty boxes. Naruto didn't have enough money to buy a whole new orange outfit so he settled for buying an orange scarf that had the Village Hidden in the Mist's ninja mark embroidered in black at the ends and an orange wallet. He was a little apprehensive to buy a replacement for Gama-chan who was back home hidden in his fridge behind his sour milk, but he reasoned that he needed a safe place to put what little money he had left and convinced himself to buy the simple wallet.

Naruto was walking down the street when one booth caught his attention. The booth was selling fake ninja wears to the civilians. Naruto tilted his head as he approached the stand and lifted up a rubber shuriken, bending it so two of the points were touching he released one end, letting out a chuckle as the toy shuriken wobbled back and forth before finding its equilibrium. He returned the toy to the counter and continued gazing through the booths products. A pile of scrolls off to the side of the booth caught his attention and he made his way over there, admitting small distractions, that Naruto was sometimes prone too. There were scrolls on all types of things including technique scrolls, explanatory scrolls on chakra, and multiple other scrolls filled with anything a ninja would have written. One scroll in particular caught his attention.

"Ah, good eye," said an old man. His bald head gleamed in the lantern's soft glow distracting Naruto from his torn and grimy dark blue kimono. The bedraggled man kept his hands tucked behind his back as he looked over Naruto's shoulder.

"Eh?" asked Naruto as he picked up the scroll and turned it around in his hands. The old man nodded to that scroll with a smile.

"That scroll is something I just got last week, its got some beautiful haikus in it," said the man. Naruto tilted his head and opened up the scroll slightly to see what the man was talking about. Inside the scroll was written in a messy, semi-familiar scrawl and the edges were adorned with a maroon tint. Naruto had to squint his eyes to make out the untidy handwriting, through this careful ministration he finally made out the first of ten haikus.

'_Craft in the Sea Mist,_

_Weathering ravishing waves,_

_Red dawn approaches.'_

Naruto scanned the rest of the haikus disinterestedly before discarding most of it. Reading wasn't one of his strong suits after all he was a ninja not a librarian, nor was he a poet. But something about the script clicked in the recesses of his mind, this scroll was important. He turned expectantly to the old man.

"I'll take it," said Naruto with a smile which the man returned. So Naruto gained a mysterious scroll and lost another portion of his dwindling cash, he was just glad that he had enough for ramen later that night for dinner.

* * *

Naruto sat on the bar stool, happily slurping up his ramen while looking over the scroll. He was of the belief that just looking at the scroll would allow its secrets to unravel and no extra effort was needed. He paused in between bowls of ramen to hold the scroll up into light, halfway expecting a secret message to reveal itself in the heat of the lantern. He quickly discarded this idea as another bowl of miso ramen was placed in front of him and he returned to glowering at the parchment as he shuffled ramen into his mouth.

Unfortunately multitasking was not something that Naruto excelled at. By splitting his attention between the two things he inadvertently swallowed and took a deep breath at the same time, irritating his airway as the broth tried to force its way down the wrong tube, leaving him gagging and coughing to get rid of the tickling sensation that such an act incurred. His neighbor scowled at him in distaste as bit of the broth and a piece of noodle hit his face, the cook chuckled at the scene.

"Slow down, my boy," said the cook, "I don't like having my patrons dying on me, it's bad for the business."

"I wouldn't die," said Naruto as he slurped up another clump of noodles, "I've got too much to live for!"

"I might not be a doctor, but I'm certain choking is a sure way to die, so slow down a mite my boy," admonished the cook before he went off to tend to the new customers that had arrived. Naruto waved off the cooks concerns but paused as he looked down at the scroll and held it out to his angry neighbor.

"This handwriting," began Naruto as he put the scroll down on the table so the both of them could look at it, "do you think a doctor wrote it?" His neighbor scoffed at the question looking disbelievingly at the exasperating blond beside him.

"You expect me to tell you the profession of whoever wrote that scroll simply by the handwriting?" asked the man. Naruto nodded eagerly at the man's question, fully expecting an answer.

"It can't be that hard," said Naruto encouragingly as he pushed the scroll closer to his neighbor's bowl of ramen and for his troubles received a glare. Naruto didn't notice his haughty neighbors reaction because he had immediately returned to assessing the scroll's contents.

"Then you do it," said his neighbor as he slapped down money for his meal and leaving the small stand with a glower on his face. Naruto watched as his neighbor departed and with a shrug of his shoulders returned to his scroll. He read over the last haiku in bafflement, the word '_code_' in the haiku stood out in its messiness and seemed to have a deeper meaning then '_The Sailor's code_' as the haiku tried to imply.

Naruto screwed up his eyes and turned the scroll upside down and turned it around as he continued to munch slowly on his noodles examining every piece of the puzzle before him. With another shrug he put down the scroll to focus entirely on his meal with single minded determination.

After a few more bowls of various ramen, when he had finally had his fill and no more money to spend he laid his head down with a dreamy sigh of satisfaction until a horrendous stench drifted into his nose. It was the same smell that Granny Tsunade and Ero-sannin reeked of after a night of bingeing on sake and the perfume Granny Tsunade put on to mask the smell the morning after. Naruto gagged and looked around, nose plugged, trying to find the source of the scent. After realizing that plugging his nose was counterproductive to his goal he forcefully had to remove his hand and sniffed the air but no such overwhelming scent invaded his olfactory bulb again and Naruto sighed in relief. He shrugged excusing the phantom scent and returned his head to the counter where he had been resting his head, trying to encourage himself to find a good place to sleep for the night but again the scent returned.

Naruto lifted his head and caught sight of the scroll lying open underneath his hand. Cautiously Naruto pulled the scroll closer, leaned in towards the parchment, and took a tentative sniff of the paper before quickly shooting away from the paper when the offending scent arrested his nose, making it feel numb in its intensity. In a matter of seconds all the pieces fell into place, why the writing was so familiar and why the haikus where so odd, it was a coded message from Granny Tsunade! He knew the Hokage's preferred way to code was to make the message appear as something that could be excused as an everyday object should its delivery ever be interrupted.

The reinvigorated Naruto jumped up and hugged the scroll to his chest; he needed to decode this scroll right away. With a sheepish smile he turned to the ramen cook, knowing he needed help and glad that he hadn't shot his help in the foot by not paying for his meal as that tended to make most people unaccommodating.

"Hey chef?" asked Naruto, "Do you know where the library is?"

Naruto loved the library. Even if he did hate reading the building had all sorts of uses. For one thing it held a whole bunch of information that the public and he could access and he didn't have to keep asking Iruka-sensei to explain everything to him, also it was always cold during the hot summers in Fire Country, and the book cases were excellent to climb and get lost in even if there usually was a grouchy librarian telling him to _'shh'_ and not to eat in the building.

"It's closed now, for the festival," answered the cook.

"When does it open again?" asked Naruto with a frown.

"Next week," answered the cook, Naruto's frown deepened, he didn't have that type of time especially if Tsunade had to write this message herself it had to be urgent and he knew how much the old lady hated work.

"Alright, but where's the library so that I know how to get there next week?" pushed Naruto. Although the man looked suspicious he gave the boy directions to the public building. Naruto gave his thanks and walked in the opposite direction of the library with a whistle and a skip, he didn't want to be too obvious before he took to the rooftops.

* * *

Naruto held the thick glow stick between his teeth as he flipped through the book in front of him. A creaking sound made him pause as he froze in place, waiting for another sound to indicate someone was in the library and not just the inflections of an old building. After a significant amount of time Naruto exhaled in relief and returned to the scroll.

It wasn't too hard to decode but even then he had only made out the first line of the first haiku. '_Craft in the Sea Mist'_ was rather self explanatory, also the fifth haiku showed that the recipient of this message was suppose to be the Mizukage's counselor.

Naruto sat in the middle of one of the furthest aisle the whole night; however, the trip to the library yielded very little success in regard to decoding the scroll. No matter what pattern he used he couldn't understand what the Hokage was trying to tell their allies. So around dusk, an hour before the sun illuminated the world with its cheery beams, Naruto returned the books to their rightful place, and left the library the same way he entered, a second story window. Before he could return to Konoha he now had a new mission to carry out.

* * *

"_So I went to deliver the message, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be…"_

_To be continued…_

**A/N: Sorry it's so short, but it seemed like such a great place to end it!**

** To clarify: As to why I keep having people address Naruto as Ninja-san instead is pretty simple. Naruto is a ninja, trained since the get-go never to reveal anything to enemy nin, which his jailers poised as in the 3****rd**** chapter. Were in the 4****th**** he gets distracted and is still in the mindset to not give too much information away, also he's so use to just being called Ninja-san that he doesn't notice. Hopefully that clears some things up!**


	7. Respectable Misunderstandings

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own a thing, pinky promise._

* * *

"_So I went to deliver the message, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be…"_

Naruto stood precariously on the pinnacle of a tallest rooftop overlooking the Village Hidden in the Mist. His orange scarf was wrapped around his head, the ends whipping behind him from the harsh winds, hiding his sunny tresses from those below. The village was small, guarded on all sides be either a tall wall or the harbor of harrowing waves from an unforgiving sea.

Naruto crouched low to gain some balance from a lower center of gravity, as he contemplated his next step to delivering the Hokage's message safely into the right hands. His whole focus of the last few days had been getting into the city, not what he needed to do afterwards. It had literally taken _days_ to get as far as he had. He had tried to enter the city in a variety of ways, through scandal and scheming. Finally he had just hidden his hair and henged his eyes to an unpleasant brown and snuck into the city after a large wave of returning ninja had walked through the gates. If Naruto had known it would have been that simple 8 days ago it would have saved him a lot of bumps and bruises.

Naruto's blue gaze took in the city, leisurely searching the brown and grays of cobblestone streets, blue tiled roofs, and white limestone buildings. He was looking for the Mizukage's tower, or Mist's headquarters, heck, even the fearless leader's home would do. Naruto figured that the best place to start was at the root of the solution; after all, one haiku had specifically mentioned the '_Counselor of Waves_.'

All the buildings sat in uniformity there was nothing unique about the buildings except their varying size and the signs that surrounded each building. Naruto shuddered as he watched the people down below dressed in the same grayish white canvas shirts and faded blue pants, Naruto hated unoriginality and this city had it down to a science. The most unique building in the whole city was the yellow lighthouse, and that was miles out at the end of the harbor break wall!

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed as he watched the miniature people go through the motions of the day, he wondered what happened to all the ninja. He thought back to the mass that he followed into the city and remembered that he had lost track of them quickly in the crowd despite their large numbers. These Mist-nins where nothing like those in Konoha who jumped from rooftop to rooftop proudly and who gladly displayed their quirks to the world, finding no need to hide them. But these ninja, they hid in the shadows, kept to the ground with heads down but eyes alert, Naruto didn't like it. He didn't like it, but he could do nothing to change an entire culture at the moment, maybe one day, but at the moment there were more important things that he had to be doing; like finding the Mizukage's counselor. So Naruto returned to observing the city, hoping that in time something would stand out.

Maybe it was the fact that Naruto had done nothing but watch the city for hours, or maybe Naruto had been unconsciously mapping the cities districts, or possibly it was the fact that a flicker of silver had distracted Naruto enough to watch a ninja enter a boring building, but in a moment of clarity Naruto spotted Mist's Ninja headquarters amidst the others. The building wasn't very tall, but it's length more than made up for its lack in height. It was made of typical white limestone and its rooftop consisted of sloping blue tiles. Naruto didn't mind as a smile stretched over his lips and he leapt from his pinnacle to another and another, hoping to get a better view. He didn't stop until he stood directly across from the headquarters, and he could observe it with ease.

Naruto scanned the building's windows, looking for anyone that might look like a counselor. Naruto had never seen or even heard the counselor described but he figured that he would look a lot like the third's council, all old and wrinkled. Naruto's eyes zeroed in on a second story window where he could see the gray hair and wrinkled hands clothed in a blue and white robe as the man dipped a brush in ink. Naruto concluded after looking through a few other windows that this man could only be the counselor he had been searching for. The window wasn't opened but Naruto knew that could be easily fixed, so while channeling chakra to his feet and hands Naruto took a breath and leapt.

He landed with little grace, his hands and toes holding him securely against the sheer drop of the wall. Naruto planted his feet onto the wall and pushed upwards with his hands so he stood horizontal and perpendicular to the wall before he made his way towards the latched window, kneeling on the ledge. Naruto was slightly surprised that no one had noticed him yet but he carried on as he withdrew a stolen shuriken from his baggy pockets and proceeded to open the window.

A simple _clink_ followed the opening of his target room and Naruto slipped in while looking over his shoulder, expecting to be attacked from behind. When Naruto finally turned around it was to a large and long sword pointed to his throat by a middle aged man with wavy brown hair. Behind Naruto's attacker stood the gray haired, wrinkled figure of the man Naruto had mistaken as his target.

"Who are you?" questioned the man in a booming voice. Naruto held his hands up in surrender, dropping the shuriken in his hand; he didn't come here to start anything between the villages.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said sheepishly, "I've come from Konoha to deliver a message." The man's eyes drifted to the boy's forehead, where his ninja headband should have been placed, but scowled when he didn't see it there. He believed that all ninja should have a uniform, and hated that Konoha did nothing to enforce any such code (besides in their elite). He really didn't have the time to play 'I Spy' with every foreign ninja's head gear, so he didn't bother looking for it elsewhere on the boy.

"Ah, so you're a Konoha nin?" sneered the counselor as he sheathed the sword and retreated to the desk on the other side of the room, knowing he could draw the blade again if the need were to arise. He sat down and looked Naruto up and down, finding nothing spectacular about the boy ninja. Once his eyes stopped their analysis of Naruto, they glanced at the window behind him, it was just like a Konoha nin to enter a room through the window, "Rafu, return to work, Konoha-nin what do you want?" Naruto stepped around Rafu's desk as the gray haired man rushed to return behind it, and get back to work.

"I've got something important to give ya," said Naruto with a foxy smile as he imagined the grateful look on the grumpy counselor's face as soon as the scroll was given to him.

"Really?" asked the intrigued man, "I'm not surprised that Konoha is so confident that they only sent one of their ninja." The man's face twisted into a scowl as he looked down on the lone ninja, ninja's should remain in at least a three man team. Naruto shrugged, disinterested by the malice light in this counselor's eyes as he reached into his pockets, fishing for the brown scroll. Naruto's eyes shined proudly as he displayed the scroll to the counselor and he reached up to tug the orange scarf off from around his hot head with his free hand.

"Sorry, I couldn't get it to you sooner," said Naruto with a sincere tone as he ignored the counselor's muttering, thinking back to the 8 days that he had been stranded outside the wall, "there was a situation I couldn't solve as quickly as I wanted." The counselor's eyes lost some of their hostility as he watched Naruto wave around the scroll.

"What is that?" asked the counselor as the edge left his tone and his curiosity beat back his anger. But should this all be some trick of Konoha, he would not hesitate to imprison the boy and show Konoha Mist's wrath.

"A scroll," said Naruto as he opened it to show the haikus inside, "from what I could gather, its information about… well I don't really know, but it's from Granny Tsunade."

"Tsunade?" asked the counselor as he gestured for Naruto to approach closer so that he could hand him the scroll.

"Yeah, you know our Hokage," said Naruto, "seems to me like it's really important, or else it would have gotten here sooner." Naruto's imagination played with the idea of enemy nin attacking the messenger bird on its trip here in order to stop the coded message from reaching its intended. He couldn't think of any other way that the scroll had gotten to that merchant back at the festival except that it had been taken and sold by enemy nins, secure in their thoughts that no one would ever search a merchants wares for their precious message.

"If it was really important it would have been here sooner," scoffed the counselor as he looked reproachfully at Naruto.

"Well, the fact I had to retrieve it from wrong hands took its getting here a little longer," said Naruto because in his mind if it wasn't in the owner's hands it must be in the wrong hands. The counselor's mind; however, was quickly piecing together a picture of his blond haired ninja single handedly taking down a group of enemy nin to retrieve and deliver this message from the Hokage, maybe Konoha had a right to be so soft on ninja if it received such powerful rewards. Even though it might work for Konoha, it certainly wouldn't work here, reasoned the counselor as he frowned at the scroll, lost in thought as he absently looked over the scroll.

The counselor's rage quickly melted as he studied the ninja before him over the edge of the scroll. The boy was confident and calm in the face of the Kage's advisor's anger, showing he was strong and could defend himself against high level ninja. The fact that the Hokage had sent the blond out without a team meant he was trusted and respected. Also the effortless way words slipped out the boys mouth, spoke of his diplomacy. The counselor was gratified that the Hokage thought so strongly of their allies by the sea that they would trust one of their best to deliver a message of meager importance as best they could. The counselor felt ashamed of his previous misgivings to the allies that Mist was trying to acquire. Ninja of such power should be feared and respected, not treated as though they were a mere nuisance.

"Well then, thank you honored Konoha-nin for getting this to us quickly," said the counselor, his chest puffed out in pride. Naruto blinked owlishly as he witnessed the counselor's attitude turn around, but he didn't comment as he smiled at the man.

"It was no problem," said Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head embarrassed by the compliment, "I'm sure anyone would have done it."

"Be that as it may, not everyone _could _have done accomplished this mission so effortlessly," returned the counselor as he watched the modest boy before him, "our alliance with Konoha was not a mistake." Naruto hadn't known that Mist and Konoha were even in an alliance, but he hid his confusion through a mask of cheer.

"That's great," answered Naruto with a wide smile.

"Now tell me, Konoha-nin, what is your name again, so that I can give my praise of you to your Hokage and our Mizukage?" asked the counselor. Naruto looked shocked for only a moment before he imitated the man in front of him by puffing out his chest in pride.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha!" cried Naruto as he thrust his thumb into his chest, with a smile. He didn't really understand why the counselor was being so nice to him when he had been rather hostile earlier, maybe it had to do with getting that scroll? The counselor smiled widely at Naruto's introduction as he acknowledged that the Hokage had sent her successor to deliver the message in order to get the Mizukage's approval of him and the counselor had to admit that the boy had potential.

"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" whispered the counselor under his breath.

"Eh? Did you say something?" asked Naruto as he watched a small smile reach the man's lips.

"No, no, simply thinking of the future," said the counselor as he laced his hands in front of his face to hide his smile. Naruto didn't comment as he bounced on the balls of his feet before a thought entering his mind.

"Do you know where 'The Great Bridge Built by Tazuna' is? I've been meaning to visit it, I'm sure that the Hokage wouldn't miss a few more days of my absence," said Naruto as he tilted his head. He was awfully close to the small island connected to the mainland by the large bridge; he figured that he should at least try to visit Tazuna and Inari for a day. Besides that he couldn't exactly recall the way to Konoha from here, so he thought that if all else failed he could ask the small family how to get there, it would be really embarrassing if he had to ask the Mizukage's advisor.

"You would like to do some sightseeing?" asked the counselor, thrilled that the future Hokage thought so much of the area around their lands that he was willing to spend a few extra days nearby as a tourist. Also it would be nice to have such a powerful ninja around in case he was needed, especially now with trouble starting to crop up around their neighbor's land, the Land of Waves.

"Yeah, if you don't mind me staying around the area for a few days," said Naruto with a nod. He didn't really care what the counselor said or if he agreed or not, but he figured that it would be best to ask, chiefly since when he became Hokage he would have to be on good terms with the Mizukage and her counselor was a sure way to the Kage's heart, if they remained in an alliance.

"Yes, please do, I'll make sure to wait a few days before sending a reply to your Hokage so that she doesn't think you are neglecting your duties," said the counselor, "as for directions just ask my secretary out through that door there, he'll tell you the way and even offer a few other suggestions." Naruto gave the man a grateful smile before their meeting was interrupted by another urgent matter. Naruto left after giving his heartfelt goodbyes to the counselor to get directions from the chuunin sitting at the desk outside the counselor's door.

* * *

"_I did a little sight seeing and went to go see Tazuna the Bridge Builder to get directions home…"_

_To be continued…_

**A/N: So I made a little mistake writing this the first time. So I went back and edited it a bit, so it should be more consistent with the facts without having to re-write the entire chapter! **


	8. Honorable Mention

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **_Even though I've been gone for a few months, nothing has changed, meaning I don't own anything._

* * *

"___I did a little sight seeing and went to go see Tazuna the Bridge Builder to get directions hom_e…"

The old country road was worn down by weary travelers' feet and covered by masses of sundry colors, some of which Naruto had never seen before. There were people milling about of all sizes, shapes, and backgrounds, so much so that Naruto didn't even know where to begin looking. He was still a few miles away from where he would encounter the bridge, but already the street was packed with vendors and buyers, it was like a permanent festival, Naruto only wished the bazaar in Konoha was more like this. The energy, the people, the food! It was enough to get Naruto pumped for anything.

With single minded determination Naruto continued to march down the crowded road, dodging a few obstacles here and leap over others there until he was finally before the large gate that allowed access onto the great bridge. Naruto looked up; eyes squinted from the sun's bright rays searching the rooftops, out of habit.

"Hey kid!" screeched an impatient middle-aged mother with chocolate brown hair, messily pulled into a bun, the skin around her eyes appeared to beginning to carve out canyons for wrinkles, her three small children clung to her skirt fearfully, "you gonna get out of the middle of the road, and stop causing trouble?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose in distaste but quickly moved out of the flustered parent's way, sticking his tongue out at her behind her back. One of the younger kids that trailed behind their mother caught sight of Naruto's deed and giggled at him, causing a smile to tug at the corners of Naruto's irritated lips. Naruto began to walk, not completing his perusal of the rooftop still stewing slightly at the rude old lady's words.

It took longer to reach the end of the bridge then Naruto remembered, he looked around at the surrounding merchants and customers curiously. Somehow a small marketplace seemed to have taken over either side of the bridge that had not been there the first time he had traveled the bridge after its completion. Naruto walked towards the edge of the walkway and looked down into the bright, clear blue water. He tilted his head and watched the horizon for the white sandy beaches, and green forestry that had dominated the island on his first visit. As he continued to walk the land rose up above the sea, and Naruto was surprised by what he saw.

In place of the small town which housed only a few necessary shops in recent years had been replaced by an outburst of boutiques, cafes, and taverns. Where there was once a modest scattering of residential homes, was now overcome by apartments, mansions, and condos. Naruto breathed in and found that the air wasn't as fresh as it once was but held a hint of the scents of a large city. Even though the air wasn't as clean, and the village wasn't as quiet, Naruto wouldn't trade this new, lively city for that old town that had been shrouded in fear and would scarcely admit a peep afraid it would attract the wrong type of attention. Naruto couldn't fight the grin that spread on his face as he surveyed the city that he was swiftly approaching.

Anticipatorily he turned his attention from the horizon ahead of him and towards the structure erected at the termination of the bridge, hoping to find the end in sight. A flash of gold caught his eye and Naruto looked up to see what had drawn his attention. Naruto tilted his head and scrunched his eyes, noting that the flash of gold must have come from a sign on top of the building at the end of the bridge. Once he had gotten close enough to stand in the building's shadow he could easily read the banner atop the roof. Naruto's jaw dropped as he looked overhead, it was not what he was expecting at all. Innocently engraved into a golden plate on top of the building that separated the bridge from the city were the words:

_The Great Naruto Bridge_

* * *

Naruto pounded on the front door of the two storied, red roofed house. He had been standing on the creakity old dock for hours (truthfully it had only been a few minutes) and Naruto's tolerance was wearing thin.

"Hey old man!" shouted Naruto irately, "I know you're in there! Now let me in!"

No one answered his plea. Blinded by his frustration he kicked the door and for his troubles received a stubbed toe.

"Ow!" cried Naruto as he clutched his throbbing big toe, hopping up and down on his one good leg.

"Hey boy, what ya doin' to that there house?" questioned a shaky voice off to the side of him. Naruto turned around to see a bent old man, a wicker basket filled with fish strung to his back.

"I'm kicking it, what does it look like I'm doing?" called out Naruto with a scowl. The old man turned around to better analyze the blond standing at Tazuna's front door. The old man's eyes narrowed as he observed the boy and his suspicious behavior. The frustrated boy had yet to try to break into the house, even though the window just beside the locked front door remained unlocked and open sleuthed the sharp old man. The fisherman smiled, after thinking over the boy's motivation he came to the conclusion that boy must be mighty stupid if he planned on stealing anything from Tazuna.

"They ain't home, ya know," hollered the old man with an open mouthed smile, showing off his missing teeth. Naruto looked over at the gnarled old man curiously.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto as he approached the old man, the dock groaning as he stepped off of it and onto the white sandy beach.

"Tazuna got a job somewheres in Kumo, took the whole family wit' him," answered the old man.

"But… but they left a window open. Who leaves the country without locking their windows?" asked a slightly lost Naruto as he looked back at the building that had once housed his team on their first disastrous escapade outside of Konoha. The old man shrugged a smile still on his lips.

"Guess Tazuna didn't leave anything of importance in the house," answered the old man, "he had a great big sale 'fore he left, selling most his stuff."

"Why would he do that?" asked a bewildered Naruto as he stood in front of the crippled fisherman.

"I suspect he didn't think he was comin' back for a while," said the fisherman.

"That can't be right! I got to ask that old geezer why he named that bridge what he did!" declared Naruto with a scowl.

"Well Tazuna's only in Kumo, ya could still go ask him," said the old man, as he watched the curious boy with a strange enthusiasm for bridge names before muttering, "isn't like he got himself killed or anything."

"What was that?" inquired Naruto who had been entertaining the thought of following the old fisherman's advice. At the moment Naruto was listing the only three things he knew about Kumo in his mind. One, Kumo was home to the Village Hidden in the Clouds, two, Kumo was ruled by the Raikage, and third, Kumo probably wasn't going to welcome him with open arms...

"Nothin' boy," grumbled the fisherman as he shifted his wicker basket to a better position on his shoulders. Naruto looked towards the house once more, cursing Tazuna for not being around when he came in to town and needed his help. But upon looking up, Naruto finally noticed that the sky was growing dark.

"When'd it get so dark out?" asked Naruto in wonder.

"Come on boy," grumbled the old fisherman, "you haven't anywhere ta stay do ya?"

"Well, I figured that I would have stayed with Tazuna and his family while I was visiting," sheepishly said Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Ya can come stay with me and the wife, just keep in mind any funny stuff and the wife'll kick ya out on the street with a few bumps and bruises," threatened the crippled man. Naruto spotted the old man's bluff, only felt gratitude for the old man who offered him a place to stay, so Naruto didn't call him out on it.

* * *

Naruto stood at a crossroads, searching the road post for the right direction to head off too. The old fisherman and his wife had gotten him up at the crack of dawn to lead him across the bridge and to this crossroads. The forest remained peaceful in the early morning air, admitting the occasional early bird chirping and the sounds of wind rustled leaves of the green deciduous trees. In the middle of the country road stood a road post listing all the major cities in the world and the direction they were in from the crossroads.

"Now, where is it…?" mumbled Naruto as he scoured the post for the right city.

Naruto dipped and ducked, circling around the pole that listed at least 35 different cities. At one point he stood on his tippy toes and leaned all his weight on one sign. A sharp _crack_ rang out, scattering the birds in the nearby vicinity. Naruto tipped precariously losing his balance and fell forward, his support laying in the dirt of the road, and crashed into the signs in front of him, pulling 3 more boards out of the post. Dust rose into the air, and Naruto blinked owlishly as he lifted himself off of planks muttering complaints. He looked down, eyebrows drawn together as he wiped the soil off of one of the downed signs.

"Hey look this says Konoha!" cried Naruto happily as he looked to were the signs had been torn away from the post. Slivers stuck out around the pole where the planks had been pulled out of their place, the spot so mutilated that Naruto couldn't tell which way the signs pointed or even which sign went where.

"Oops," muttered Naruto as he propped the one board against the post leaving the other three on the ground, before continuing his search for the capital city of Kumo. "Ah ha, there it is!" cried Naruto pointing down the road he had to go down to get too Tazuna, with a whistle, Naruto made his way towards where he knew he could get some questions answered.

* * *

"_I went to Kumo, to get some answers…"_

_To be continued..._

**A/N: So I made a bit of an uh oh last chapter and made the Mizukage a boy, oops! So I went back and changed the Mizukage into a counselor. It was the only way that I could keep the chapter as it was without entirely rewriting it. I also went back and reread all my old chapters and fixed them up. I changed a little of the facts that aren't really important to the story, but changed around some wording so that it's easier to read and understand.**


	9. A Halted Quest

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer**:_ I do not own Naruto, nor any character involved within that franchise. Just saying…_

* * *

"_I went to Kumo, to get some answers…"_

"Do these really look like gouges?" questioned Naruto pointing agitatedly to the faint whisker-like markings on his face. He crossed his arms and scowled at the gatekeeper who continued to refuse him admission into the country because of his resemblance to some escaped fugitive (the fact he lacked any transportation documents had already been noted and ignored by the guard). Naruto had traveled many days and had spent countless nights in the woods, and up this far north the nights were _cold_. His muscles ached and his joints groaned, his clothing wasn't suited to the colder climate of Kumo and the persistence of the guard at refusing him entry only added to Naruto's dreadful mood. All in all, Naruto was at his wits end.

"Be it as it may, you've got a strong likeness to that poster right there," grumbled the guard barely moving his lips around the toothpick in his mouth while pointing to the 'Wanted' poster nailed on the outside wall of the watch tower.

"So what?" groused Naruto with a pout, "the truth of the matter is that I'm _not _that fugitive in the poster, I've hardly got disfiguring scars along either side of my face, and I certainly don't have glowing red eyes or sinisterly long hair with spike that could kill someone." Naruto couldn't help but make a connection to the last characteristic with Ero-sennin, who _did _have sinisterly long hair with spikes that, while they couldn't kill someone per se, could impale a person rather spectacularly.

"Though it seems you are, I'mma going to have ta call in back up and take you in, if you can't provide decent evidence that you're not that man," informed the guard as he tapped the poster that was becoming the bane of Naruto's existence. Naruto knew that the poster looked like him, albeit a more deadly, brawny, and demonic portrayal, but it couldn't be him. Although there was the fact that Naruto _was_ an escaped fugitive in Kumo there was just no way that the poster was of him, he was certain, because Naruto had the assurance that the Warden could not have posted a bounty on a ninja they had no right in keeping imprisoned, especially one they had no record of ever being in Kumo.

"Look, you've got to understand, if you do that you'll be sending an innocent to be tortured for no good reason, I mean come on," Naruto paused as he tore the poster from where it had been nailed into the wood and held it closer to his face so the guard could see the two side by side while he widened his eyes to appear innocent, "does this really look like me?"

The guard was silent as he appraised the picture and the boy before he finally cleared his throat and said, "Yes, it does." Naruto swore vociferously as he crumbled the poster in his hand in anger. The guard smirked at Naruto's fit of rage and decided to add to the boy's inferno, "you can keep that poster, got plenty of 'em in the back and their posted all around the city and watch towers."

"Here's a question for you," snapped a desperate and frustrated Naruto, "_if _I was really this escaped fugitive why would I come in the hard way? When I could just slip past the patrols and get into your capital no problem, without having to deal with a stupid guard."

"'Cause you're dumb, that's why," sniped the guard his lips twisting in an ugly form of a self-satisfied smile.

"No, I'll tell you why, it's because I'm not this fugitive, and I highly doubt I could get past the patrollers, and what even makes you think I'm a ninja?" questioned Naruto, hands flung in the air in exasperation as he paced in front of the seated guard who watched on in amusement. Normally Naruto would never admit to such a weakness, but he assured himself if it did come down to him sneaking into the village he could surely outsmart a few patrolling nins to get there.

"You've got the markin's of a ninja, that's how I know you'ra a ninja," pointed out the guard, with disinterest. The guard knew this boy wasn't the fugitive, even though he had truthfully suspected it to be so… at first. But as he talked to the youth he found the boy was far too dumb to have escaped Kumo's incarceration, and far too young to have ever been put in jail. Also the kid had far too much spirit and zeal to have ever spent a day in prison, but it didn't stop the amusement the guard got from riling the blond up.

"I—But— I can't— You—" began Naruto multiple times as he ran frustrated hands through his blond spikes, seeking reassurance from the motion.

"You might as well relax kid; the Calvary is on its way, best not to struggle when they come for you," smirked the guard as he watched Naruto for his reaction after all he was the only one that knew backup hadn't been called. The blond paced agitatedly wearing a path in the road, and kicking up dirt as he went along.

"When did this guy escape anyway?" asked Naruto as he paused momentarily in his trout to question the guard.

"About 3 weeks ago, took out half a dozen guards in his escape and injured twice as many," informed the guard, "though I don't see why I've got to be telling you this, since you know, you did it."

"I didn't do it!" exclaimed Naruto distraught as he whirled towards the guard, "I couldn't have! I was all the way on the border of Kiri that week attending a festival."

"Got any proof?" questioned the smirking guard thinking that there was no way Naruto had any if his downtrodden face was any indication.

"No," grumbled Naruto but he paused and looked down at the scarf dangling around his neck, "I did buy this though!" Naruto cried out in triumph as he thrust the scarf in the guard's face.

"Nice color," said the guard, "but it doesn't prove anything, you could have gotten it anywhere."

"But it has Kirigakure's symbol," protested Naruto as he extracted the scarf from the guards face to look at the symbol himself.

"You coulda added it later," shrugged the guard, "you seem like the type to be good with some thread and a needle." Naruto didn't answer as he cried out in frustration, rustling more than a few creatures' feathers in the forest, among others.

"What… what can I do to convince you I'm not this—this moron?" asked Naruto as he held up the wrinkled Wanted poster of the fugitive that looked suspiciously like him and was causing his look-a-like a lot of grief.

"Well…" began the guard his mind a blaze with the possibilities.

"What?" cried Naruto, ready to clear his name and get on with his journey.

"Well…" again the guard began, a mischievous gleam in his black eyes, "You see I know a guy, who knew a guy who was a distance cousin or something to the fugitive," Naruto nodded, following along, it didn't seem unlikely that the guard knew someone that was of some relation to the criminal, Ninjas usually traveled in the same circles, "well you see my friend, you know the one that-"

"Yeah, right the one that knew a guy who knew the guy," grumbled Naruto, impatient to see what it was that he could do to hurry along his innocence. The guard smirked, knowing that he had Naruto eating out of the palm of his hand; this kid was just making it too easy.

"Right, so my friend was telling me about this fugitive, although he's super strong, super intelligent, and super tough," the guard paused to glance at Naruto with a frown as he seemed to look him over, "the guy had a bit of a… phobia, I guess you could call it."

"Of what?" asked Naruto nonplussed, the guard had to check his chuckling at the boy's mingling emotions of eagerness and repulsion.

"Feet," said the guard at long last, when Naruto was about to burst, "this guy was terrified of feet, he never touched 'em, not even his own, well asides from putting on his shoes."

"That's a weird phobia, what's not to like about feet?" the last part Naruto had muttered to himself as he looked at his own encased in their worn and muddy, black sandals.

"Can't tell ya how it happened, all's I know is that he never liked 'em," shrugged the guard.

"So what's that got to do with me?" inquired Naruto, "it's not like I'm afraid of feet…which means I _can't _be the fugitive if I don't mind feet!"

"Sure," agreed the guard, "you jus' gotta prove it to me."

"How?" asked Naruto, a frown developing between his eyebrows. A sinister grin bloomed on the guard's face; he had the kid now, hook, line, and sinker.

"How's about you prove it by touching my feet," said the guard, "you know, give me a foot massage."

"I'm _not _giving you a foot massage," declared Naruto as he stamped his feet.

"Alright then, we'll just wait here for some of the ninja's I called in ta get here," shrugged the guard nonchalantly. Naruto's face dropped and he eyes showed that he was warring with his desire to get into Kumo with his high standards. The guard watched the boy with the glee of having a personal showing of the world's funniest facial expressions, ever.

Naruto heaved a sigh, having come to an unpleasant realization before he bent down glowering at the guard and forcefully yanked the seated nin's foot towards him. The guard smirked as he kicked off his sandals and presented the boy with a pair of dried, yellowing, and cracked feet. They were a Podiatrist's nightmare, and Naruto had to touch them. He kept his gag reflex in line as it wouldn't do if he threw up on the guard's feet while trying to prove he wasn't disgusted _or_ terrified of them.

The guard sighed in relaxation. Because of his job as watchmen, he was constantly on his feet, and as such his feet was always in a state of disrepair and pain. His wife had always refused to give him any relief from his aching feet, and he had even tried to con his sweet little girl into doing it once, it only caused his daughter to have nightmares for a whole week. The boy who looked like that fugitive—who was far too gullible for his own good— had presented an opportunity, and so the guard had ceased it without abandon.

* * *

Later that night when Naruto entered the city, he couldn't shake the felling of disgust and trauma as he continued to stare at his hands as though they had just committed a sin without his express consent. At least he had made it to the city before nighttime brought the frigid arctic winds, Naruto concluded semi-happily; the tall buildings and mountains would do wonders to block most of the high velocity gusts. The only problem that Naruto could identify was that now that he was here, he didn't have a clue as to where to begin looking for the grouchy bridge builder and his family. The old fisherman, who had offered him a place to stay in the Land of Waves, had told him plenty, except for the exact whereabouts in Kumogakure old Tazuna could be found because the old man himself didn't know.

Naruto continued down the streets in dismay as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his drawstring black Capri's. His chin was tucked down into his gray short-sleeve shirt so he could watch his feet kick at the loose rocks that littered the concert capital. The multiple terraces above his head blocked out most of the failing daylight leaving the ground to be illuminated by rows and rows of street lights to guide Naruto in his trek to nowhere.

The pleasant din of village life did nothing to raise his dejected spirits, but the growling of his hungry belly gave him pause. Naruto looked around the street, trying to spot somewhere that might possibly sell food, and as Naruto recalled his travels with Jiraiya, sold a plethora of information. Naruto didn't have a lot of money and what he had had been 'borrowed' from the residents of towns he had passed on his way here, and it looked like he would need to take some more soon. He counted out the meager amount of coins he had left and was satisfied to find there was enough remaining for a small meal. Naruto was more than delighted when he spotted a small café a few stores down, and with renewed spirits strutted over happily.

Naruto entered the small café to find it had been set up in a traditional way, with mats of reed covering the floor, low wooden tables decorating the room, and rice paper stretched on wooden frames for the walls. The dim lantern set on each low table hid the faces of those in café with long, billowing shadows. Although the dim lighting did nothing to hide the more deadly occupants of the room, like the one guy in the corner with his face hidden behind a high collar and low hood, but all his precautions did nothing to hide the gigantic cloth warped sword leaning against the wall behind him or the excessive killing intent he was emitting that made the hairs on Naruto's neck stand on end. There was also a group of fierce looking ninja's with ragged clothes under pearl white vests their weapons poised for action seated right by the doors to more easily glare at him and any newcomers that entered the café, Naruto suspected they weren't good for business. Naruto gulped nervously, and vowed to stay away from that guy and those ninja's, they couldn't be any good.

"May I help you sir?" asked a nondescript hostess. Naruto nodded and informed her he would need a table, which she quickly led him too. With barely a word the hostess dissolved into the background and Naruto was mystified when he looked up from his menu and found she wasn't there. Naruto shrugged it off when his waitress appeared (she looked rather young, Naruto speculated that she couldn't be older then seventeen) with a welcoming grin that appeared to Naruto a little to sincere; he'd never seen anyone look so happy to take a person's order. Without preamble Naruto ordered the cheapest item on the menu that would fill his stomach and further empty his wallet.

Naruto was absolutely famished by the time she returned with his meal, and he completely ignored the girl in order to diligently stare down the food in her hands, he didn't even know when she had deposited the food on the table and had disappeared.

"Hey, lady can I ask you something?" asked Naruto the empty plate of food in front of him, once his waitress had reappeared at his table a tablet of paper at the ready to write down any additional items to his order.

"Yes, sir?" asked the waitress with an enthusiastic air. Naruto felt she might have been a little too eager to please as the lady leaned towards him, a large grin on her face as her hands fiddled with her pad of paper and pencil. Naruto looked around cautiously to see if anyone was listening in to his conversation and found that only the creep in the corner was paying any attention to his corner of the room but Naruto didn't mind he wasn't exactly sharing top secret material and the guy was splitting his attention equally between him, the three ninja in the front, and the mother with her baby.

"I was just wondering…" began Naruto as he turned his attention away from the room at large and towards his waitress, "I was wondering if you had any information on someone I'm trying to find."

"Well," began the waitress beaming as she leaned back enough to check out Naruto, he supposed it was to see if he was trustworthy, "depends."

"On what?" asked Naruto wearily, leery of favors.

The waitress giggled flirtatiously before answering, "On who you're looking for, I might know just about everyone in this town, but newcomers like you I don't know, no matter how cute they are."

"Oh," said Naruto sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head, uncomfortable with the way the waitress batted her eyelashes and trailed a finger through the hair of his arm, "um… maybe you can't help me then."

"No, no, I'm sure I can help you," assured the waitress slightly desperate, "just tell me the person's name, and even if _I _don't know them I'm sure I know someone who does."

"Why do you want to help me so bad, weird lady?" wondered Naruto, but he managed to check his question before he could say it out loud, "Er, then do you happen to have heard of Tazuna the bridge builder? I heard he's in town around here."

The waitress nodded eagerly beaming and relieved that she could help the cute stranger, "I've heard of him, he's building a sky bridge not too far from here, if you want I can take you there after I get off the clock."

"Are you sure?" asked Naruto excitedly as he bounced slightly in his seat.

"Well sure, maybe we can you know… do something while you're in town?" asked the waitress as she batted her eyelashes again and Naruto wondered if she had something stuck in her eye.

"You are taking me to Tazuna, that's us doing something together," shrugged Naruto; he didn't exactly understand why the girl gave a high pitched giggle in response to his statement but he fought back a wince as the sound assaulted his senses all the same.

* * *

"_Well she wasn't _wrong_…"_

_To be continued…_


	10. Missing Nin in the Clouds

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **_I do not claim to own that which has already been created, patented, or copyrighted._

* * *

"_Well she wasn't _wrong_…"_

Naruto looked over his shoulder once again, just to make sure the waitress from earlier had really left. After a series of wrong turns, a trip back to her house to drop off her work uniform, a run in with some gang members, and an attempt to suck the life out of him she had _finally_ led him to the construction zone for the bridge. Naruto gave a weary sigh when he again reaffirmed that she was no long following him and had really returned home, but just to be sure he stretched out his awareness and chakra to see if he could spot her. It was a bit tough to sift through civilians with their meager chakra levels, but Naruto was desperate enough to at least try. It only took a moment but just as he had suspected he couldn't find her among the other late night wanders.

With another sigh, this time in relief Naruto turned his full attention to the half finished bridge before him. Floodlights filled the area only to show that the bridge was abandoned of all workers. Naruto should have realized earlier that the workers would have all returned home by this time of night. With a shrug, Naruto approached the closest stack of metal piping to wait out the night. He didn't know when the workers would return to continue building the bridge and he didn't want to risk not meeting up with them. He had also spent all his money on dinner, so he couldn't exactly pay for a room in an inn.

The floodlights were blinding and Naruto had to squint his eyes to make anything out. Naruto glanced around, his hand raised to cover his eyes, taking in the sight of the bridge of concert, cables, and metal beams. The bridge was nearly complete; the two sides of the road were only separated by 10 meters of nothingness. A shadow on the other side caught his attention as he was glancing around and with a surge of energy Naruto hopped to his feet and stumbled his way to the edge of his side of the highway.

"Hello!" cried Naruto as he waved his arms above his head to draw the attention of the man across the way. He thought that if he could get this worker's attention he might know where he could find Tazuna. Naruto frowned when the man from over the gap in the bridge didn't respond right away. Before he could shout out to the man again, the worker made his way closer to the gap.

"Hey! I was wondering if you could help me find a guy?" called Naruto with a sheepish grin. The floodlights on the bridge made it hard to see any characteristics of the worker; all he could see in detail was the dark edge of the man's silhouette. The worker's response was to merely turn his back and begin to walk away.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? I asked you question!" exclaimed Naruto with a growl. This worker didn't have to be so rude and if he didn't answer Naruto's question he didn't know how long he would have to wait around just to ask Tazuna a simple question. Naruto could be patient, but not when a golden opportunity like this presented itself, so he did the first thing that came to mind and cursed the man as he backed up. He was going to confront him face to face, all that man had to do was say if he knew where Tazuna and his family were staying or not. He glanced up when he was far enough back, but he paused as he watched the man from earlier rush towards him.

"Waah! There's no way you can clear that jump!" Naruto cried as he took off sprinting, hoping he could reach the man before he plunged into the uncertainty below him. Naruto had just reached the edge, charka flooding into his feet, his wild eyes wide as he stumbled to a sudden stop. Just as he was about to launch himself from the edge the man had landed just beside him in a streak of white blond and blood red before he was sent careening by his own momentum, sailing behind Naruto, dust and pebbles kicked up in an arching pattern behind him.

"You're a Ninja!" Naruto gasped out as he pivoted on one of his feet to face the man. The man towered over Naruto and his long spiky white blond hair stopped halfway down his back, his black eyes stared soullessly into Naruto's blue ones. Naruto's eyes strayed to the man's face and Naruto couldn't help but wonder what could have caused the gouging scar tissue along either side of his jaw bone. The man's bright red vest, that reminded Naruto vividly of his own blood pumping through his veins, opened to reveal a scarred chest. Naruto took only a moment to contemplate why some Ninja's had such aversion to the brighter spectrum of the rainbow, but his man didn't seem to care overly much, and Naruto admired him for his boldness because really Naruto understood. The man had yet to speak a word to Naruto, so in a bid to lessen the natural silence of night, Naruto began to ramble.

"So… You work on this bridge, right?" asked Naruto and although he did not receive a clear indication that the man did, Naruto ploughed on eager to complete his own self-appointed mission, "since you do that must mean that you know the bridge builder, Tazuna!" the man remained silent and Naruto understood, "yeah, the old man can be a little cranky… and he does have a bit of a temper, and is extremely picky, even when he is drunk, which is the majority of the time, trust me, I worked for him a few years ago, I bet he hasn't gotten any better, but the thing is…" Naruto paused as he took a breath and really examined the man before him, "you know you remind me of someone, I just can't but my finger on it… anyway the thing is I need…" Naruto had a nagging feeling he should remember this man, "you haven't been in Iwa recently, no, hmm… maybe Mizu? I was just there for their festival, no, not there either, huh?"

Naruto noticed the man tensed more and more as their conversation progressed so in a bid to sooth this strange Ninja, the younger blond happily chatted on.

"You know, I wouldn't worry about it," this he said more to reassure himself, "maybe you just look like a person that looked like a person. For instance just this afternoon when I was trying to get into Kumo, you know to find Tazuna, there was this guard that wouldn't let me in, he was convinced that I was this rogue nin that had escaped or something the other week, anyway, this guy, he looks nothing like me, here I'll show you, the guard let me keep one of the wanted posters," as Naruto was rifling through his meager amount of pockets, honestly a Ninja should never have to deal with only having two pockets, the man who stood across from him had tensed even more, his muscles taut and eager for action.

The nin recognized that the younger blond probably wasn't a ninja as he had no headband and wore clothes that were highly unlikely to be found on anyone but a civilian, and as such he didn't really want to hurt the kid let alone kill him. So as Naruto was distracted the man dropped into a more comfortable stance and aimed a high kick to knock the boy out while he was distracted, that way he could make a clean get away without the kid being any the wiser. At the same moment the nin had begun to carry out his plan, Naruto had dropped the very paper he had been looking for and bent down to retrieve it, the kick managed to go over his ducked head. Naruto might have felt the breeze from the force of the man's attack, but didn't much care to comment on it so he continued trying to unfold the paper. Meanwhile the nervous nin recovered from his missed blow and instead aimed a quick jab at the boy, but Naruto was in the process of standing up after plucking the paper off the road. Naruto stood up to fast, causing his head to rush and his vision to swim, as well as making him over extend his balance, he easily recuperated by taking a step back to steady himself but because of his actions the other nin's punch just managed to miss his stomach, his aim having been thrown off.

"I mean I totally understand where you're coming from about being recognized as someone else. I wish I could have just hit that guard from earlier when he kept insisting I was this nin, who need I remind you I look _nothing_ like!" crooned Naruto with a scowl. Naruto persisted in the process of unraveling the poster to show the man just how far off the guard had been when the man advanced toward Naruto. Naruto had just managed to open up the once folded paper and was in the process of turning it right side up and turn it over when the man began to throw a series of hard punches and wild uppercuts.

"Woah!" cried Naruto as he dodged the first rounds of punches, but he had to drop the poster on the ground so he could use his hands to block a few wayward punches, "there's no need to get so angry about it, hey, hey Red-nin, calm down!" But the older blond didn't listen, his frustration however, did grow with each missed hit, a civilian wasn't supposed to be able to block his every hit. With a growl the larger blond aimed a high roundhouse kick at the boy and was satisfied when the kick actually landed. Naruto let out a noise of anger and confusion as he skidded across the concrete of the bridge stopping just a meter short of the edge of the unfinished portion of the bridge. Naruto murmured insults under his breath as he swiped a hand across his face, where a small spring of blood had swelled from the corner of his mouth, to halt the drops from craving a riverbed down his chin.

"What's the big idea suddenly attacking me like that?" Naruto crowed as he propped himself up with his unoccupied hand. When the other blond didn't answer Naruto growled as he dragged himself back onto his feet, he set his face, if this man was going to attack him for no reason then Naruto wasn't going to just sit back and let the punches roll. He was going to fight back.

The man glared as he watched the shorter blond get back up. He didn't think he could have misjudged the boy so much, but the younger blond was getting back on his feet when any other civilian would be crumpled on the ground in a heap of broken limbs and unconsciousness. He didn't want to think this tiny blond could possibly be a nin or even a police officer in disguise to draw him out, although that was admittedly where his thoughts strayed. But that couldn't be right, assured the older nin, because neither could have possibly known that he would come to this unfinished bridge to make his escape from the country or even that hearing this boy be so clueless, as to call out to him, would whet his curiosity. To say this nin was confused about Naruto's purpose was an understatement.

Naruto meanwhile, stretched his muscles; it had felt like ages since his last real fight with another Ninja, he thought the last had been in Irie's village. Without Naruto's notice a grin splayed itself across his lips as he looked at the nin, he didn't want to hurt the other man, just get some answers. Be that as it may, he had a few tricks up his sleeve that he had been dying to try on someone, and as far as he knew would not seriously hurt the attacker. Now, Naruto thought, was as good a time as any to try it out on a human test subject.

"Well, Red-nin, I don't know what you have against answering my questions but if you want to fight then I'll give you a fight!" declared Naruto as he cracked his knuckles and crouched into a lazy stance. The other nin saw this move and frowned, the boy's stance looked as though he had learned it from a comic book, there were many holes in the blond's defense, and so the older of the two had to wonder at just how much of the boy's earlier blocking had been an exercise of experience and skill or of pure luck and chance. The recently dubbed Red-nin frowned but shifted into his own more guarded stance, he supposed in order to truly know what career this boy hailed from he would have to test him. Another important objective for the nin was also to find a way to silence Naruto so he could not report this sighting to either his superiors or the bloodhounds known as the Kumo elite for at least a few hours.

Naruto was eager to fight, but Ero-sennin had taught him well, and so he waited, even as he bounced on the balls of his feet, ready for the older nin's next onslaught of punches and kicks.

With a growl as Naruto's only warning, the nin rushed towards Naruto before disappearing right in front of him. Naruto grinned as he ducked just in time to miss a kick aimed at his lower back. The older nin frowned as he retracted his leg, watching Naruto spin around to look at him with sparking blue eyes, the nin couldn't help but feel this was an ominous sign. Naruto again settled into his signature lazy stance, and waited once again for the man to attack, and he was not disappointed. The nin threw a hard left hook which Naruto just barely dodged, tripping over his own feet. The nin didn't let up on his attack as he followed the left hook with multiple right jabs, most of them Naruto wasn't lucky enough to dodge. The nin gave Naruto one last powerful punch to the gut that sent Naruto skidding across the concrete. Naruto coughed, trying to gulp down air to replenish his deflated lungs with the much needed oxygen.

"That was… a lucky hit," gasped Naruto with a foxy grin, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. Naruto propped himself up, his hooded eyes never leaving his attacker, until a crinkling of paper reached his sharp ears and Naruto perked up. His eyebrows furrowed as he glanced down to spot the object of such a noise. What he saw was the poster he had dropped earlier, the wanted portion face up and glaring knowingly in his direction.

"Huh, what's this?" murmured Naruto as he picked up the dropped poster, various shoe prints emblazoned on its back. Naruto glanced up at the other nin and tilted his head before glancing down at the poster's black and white portrait. Acknowledgement came as a sun breaking through its cloudy covering, and Naruto gaped while the other nin tensed. The nin froze as he watched the boy seemingly glow in understanding, his muscles heavy and unable to move as he watched his identity being discovered.

"Kanaye of the White Rain?" read Naruto as he looked up and rolled under a low kick just in time although the kick managed to just graze his shoulder, sending a shock of force throughout the muscle. Naruto brushed off the hit and quickly scrambled to his feet ready to dodge the downward kick the rogue sent his way.

"You're him, aren't you? That missing nin that attacked all those people," lowly inquired Naruto as he looked at the man through the bright yellow of his blond bangs, "more importantly you're the reason that guard stopped me earlier! I had to massage his feet because of you!" Naruto frowned as he neatly folded the poster back up and returned it to his pocket, a flash of memories playing behind his eyes. The horror of those memories returned to him and Naruto finally allowed his jaw set in seriousness, his fingers crossed in the seal for the Ram. If anything, he at least had a way to fight this man if his next plan failed. The other nin started, this boy really _was_ a nin, and the rogue had a looming intuition that this boy was going to be a nuisance.

"You're not going to enjoy this," announced Naruto with a grin, and without further ado 20 or so copies of himself popped up around him, all cackling in delight as they looked over their competitor. Kanaye's only reaction was to widen his eyes and forming his own hand signs and Naruto was impressed as he watched the moisture in the air solidify into 4 doppelgangers of the rogue, not everybody could do that.

Naruto gave no warning before he sent his multiples to attack those of the extra rogues. A few of the Naruto's however stayed behind; each stationed extra distances away, observing the fight as though to hide which one was the original. In less time than either expected the number of their clones dissolved or poofed into nonexistence, leaving only those clones that had stayed out of the fight and the missing nin remaining. Kanaye grinned, his hands flashing as he rushed towards the remaining Naruto clones, all calling out in surprise.

"**Cloud Style: White Rain**!" barked the scratchy and nearly nonexistent voice of Kanaye. The Naruto's tilted their head, they'd never heard of _Cloud_ style. But going off of what he had learned, he supposed Cloud style was a combination of fire and water, maybe? Naruto didn't have long to think about it before slivers of white showered down and before any of the clones could emit even a peep of shock or pain they vanished in a haze of smoke. Naruto could only guess this was how Kanaye had gotten his name. He did take note of the low laying fog that surrounded the area the clones once resided around, and he had to wonder if clouds were really that efficient in destroying their targets.

"Neat trick, but I've got something better, believe it," called out Naruto from behind Kanaye, making him jump in surprise and hurriedly turn around, "I haven't used it on any one yet, I've been meaning to try it out though, and so may I present **Wind Style: Wind Cocoon**." The winds howled and gathered, harshly whipping their clothes and hair. Naruto watched in pure delight as a typhoon materialized around the man. But he frowned when the wind began to pick up the miscellaneous objects scattered around the construction zone before throwing them in any which way. Naruto had to dodge a few of the cables and metal beams that nearly crashed into him, but he noticed the man had yet to move from the twister that had formed around him, a smirk forming on the white blond haired man. Naruto supposed next time he would place himself in the center of the storm, or at least concentrate the charka more too only encompass the victim.

Not only where there physical objects being thrown and pitched but the clouds on the rather high mountain tops began to be sucked in around them. Before long Naruto had to dodge the beams and cables being tempest tossed in his direction by only the sound of wind in their hollow centers or the clashing on metal on metal. Although he didn't want too, he knew the only way to stop the destruction of building materials and the bridge (he winced once he heard a large boom from a boulder clash with concrete) was too end the jutsu. The fog was too thick to see through but Naruto kept his senses open and astutely tracked Kanaye of the White Rain's chakra after he had stopped adding chakra to the storm, which was rapidly being dispersed in the cloud cover. Naruto swore underneath his breath, he didn't think anyone could do that.

"Neat trick, huh?" whispered the rough and deep voice of the rogue in Naruto's ear. Naruto alert and ready for action quickly spun around trying to spot the quickly vanishing Kanaye. Naruto was vividly reminded of Zabuza, and had to commend Kakashi-sensei for so being able to fight in such conditions. Naruto slowly turned himself around in the mist, hoping to find any trace of the missing-nin lost in the fog. Naruto didn't see the jutsu that knocked him out and left him only barely clinging to consciousness, but he did hear the muttered, "**Cloud Style: Impure Smog**."

* * *

The next thing Naruto knew he was being prodded harshly with what he could only assume was a foot. Naruto groaned as he felt his head pound and as he tried to suck in a breath he found his throat ached and his tongue felt as though it was weighed down by grainy soot. He opened his mouth to demand the foot stop it's probing but all that came out was a hacking cough, that left him breathless and only served to agitate his already sore, dry throat.

"Well brat, looks like this is another bridge christened in one of ya's unorthodox ways, eh?" complained the all too familiar voice of a grumpy bridge builder before he sarcastically added, "so ta what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Old man Tazuna?" questioned Naruto hoarsely, he coughed again, hoping to clear the phlegm lodged in his throat as he swiped a hand across his irritated and blurry eyes, "whacha doin' here in the middle of the night?"

"Middle o' the night?" asked the snarky Tazuna, "it's nearly noon, it took forever to make it this far on the bridge having to assess all the damage _you_ did the other night."

"Wasn't just me!" denied Naruto as he glared at the bridge builder and unsteadily stood up on deprived muscles; they shook beneath him as though made of jelly. Tazuna sighed before reaching out a hand to stabilize the nin and once he was sure that Naruto could stand on his own he retracted his hand.

"The only other person I know to be this destructive is that Copy-cat nin or even that brat Uchiha, then again that feisty pink haired girl always looked like she would be able to do damage like this, one day," assessed Tazuna as he glared down at the blond, "where is the rest of your team any way?" Naruto hadn't really been listening to Tazuna as he was too busy trying to figure out how that missing nin had gotten away, and just what jutsu he had used on him, it felt like he had just been trapped inside a burning building for at least an hour.

"Huh? Oh he's doing his own thing, I guess," answered Naruto distractedly, only half sure that Tazuna had asked about the other guy that had helped Naruto destroy the bridge. Naruto wasn't exactly sure the cranky bridge builder would like to hear the whole truth about how he had single handily destroyed the sky bridge with one experimental jutsu.

"What? When this other guy knocked ya out did he rattle yar head too?" asked Tazuna with a smirk and Naruto scowled.

"He didn't knock me out, he used some jutsu to make me inhale some smog that knocked me out," gravely informed Naruto at least that was as much as he had worked out while he hadn't been paying attention to the bridge builder.

"Iss'hat so?" asked Tazuna and Naruto eagerly nodded, a grin on his face because really he hadn't expected Tazuna to agree so easily, "you're just as dumb now as you were when you were a puny terror!" Tazuna couldn't help but guffaw at his own joke and Naruto darkly looked towards the ground.

"Then why'd you name a bridge after me? Dumb old drunk…" muttered Naruto underneath his breath, he should have known coming here was a bad idea. Growing up however, Naruto had rarely been given much acknowledgement, so when he saw that bridge named after him; he couldn't help that small spark of pride that had been light. Of course he had remembered how terrible that old man had been when he had first met him; he had to know just what had caused the old drunkard to name the bridge after him.

"What was that, brat?" questioned Tazuna, his shoulders still shaking in mirth.

"Grandpa, what you doing over there!" called an almost familiar voice; its timbre was an octave or two too low.

"Shrinking off of work again, I'll bet!" ribbed a voice from amidst the rubble. A brood of laughter kicked up at this comment coming from all direction, and Naruto felt as though he was surrounded.

"Shut up, ya ugly brute!" yowled Tazuna with a smirk on his face that belied his insult.

"Naruto-nii-chan?" called out that same nearly recognizable voice, this time it was closer and Naruto turned around to only to see a boy nearly to his shoulders with a familiar fishing hat. Naruto grinned but looked over the boy puzzled.

"Ah, Inari-chan," said his Grandpa with a grin, "look who decided to turn up on our door step."

"Inari! You've got to be kidding me, no way is this that depressing little shrimp?" cried Naruto, he had suspected but to have it confirmed sure was something.

"Nice to know you remembered me, Naruto," grumbled Inari with a deep frown, but it didn't hold up long as a grin broke through within moments. "But what are you doing in the middle of all this wreckage."

"Well Inari, that would be because this little idiot was the one that caused all this destruction," glowered Tazuna as he rested a hand on his grandson's shoulder.

"You didn't really, did you, Naruto-nii-chan?" demurred Inari as he looked over towards the teenaged ninja.

"I did," agreed Naruto with a nod, Inari looked around the bridge his eyes wide.

"Though the kid claims to have had some help," grumbled the bridge builder.

"From who? A miniature hurricane?" called out another of the workers, all of whom where clambering over the rubble towards their boss, his grandson, and their mysterious friend.

"I might have been trying out a new jutsu," admitted Naruto sheepishly.

"Yeah, on who?" grossed another of the workers, not at all surprised their boss knew this unexplained ninja.

"Ah, that one guy, wha'his name… Kanaye of the White Rain," said Naruto as he swung out his arms to show that it was nothing.

"You have got to be s—" began one of the open mouthed workers, as they stared at the young blond in shock.

"Language, I don't need my grandson learning that from you, he learns enough from me as it is," growled Tazuna with a sharp look towards the worker he was reprimanding.

"But sir, you have to understand, Kanaye of the White Rain, is only one of the most notorious missing-nins to come out of Kumo in at least half a decade," explained another worker.

"I don't care if he was the most dangerous criminal within the last century that this brat fought, what I care about is how the—" Tazuna paused to give his expectant grandson a glance, coughed and then continued, "—what I care about is how the heck we're going to finish this bridge now by the deadline!"

"When's the deadline anyway?" asked Naruto drawing the attention of Tazuna, who looked to Naruto with a grin that meant trouble. Naruto looked worried

"How'd you manage to run into the most illustrious Missing-nin on our bridge of all bridges?" asked Inari, because he did not doubt that the young nin could run into such trouble, after all he had known this boy to have faced Zabuza, his apprentice, and Gato.

"Well, I came here to look for Tazuna and he was just on the other side of the bridge," explained Naruto with a disinterested shrug.

"He just happened to be on this bridge the same time ya wandered on to it, eh?" questioned Tazuna acerbically.

"Grandpa you should know by now that Naruto attracts these sorts of things," admonished Inari with a playful grin, his grandpa harrumphed in response.

"Be tha' as it may," grumbled Tazuna, "tis brat just added nearly 4 months of work, so brat, what do you plan on doing to fix this?"

"Fix it? You want _me_ to fix this?"

"Yes, ya caused it; you might as well help fix it."

"I understand, but you see the Hokage needs to know that…"

"I don't care. Jus' write her a letter to tell her ya've been waylaid and need to fix a mess ya've caused."

"It wasn't just me," complained Naruto nearly whining, but he knew he had already lost the fight. He wasn't disappointed however because he knew he couldn't have left this mess for the bridge builder to clean up, Naruto was already feeling guilty about it. "But alright, I'll clean up the mess I made."

"You can stay with us, it's probably going to take us a week to two to get this all cleaned up, even with your help Naruto, that is if you don't have anywhere else to go?" offered Inari before his grandpa could say anything that might jeopardize the invitation.

"Really, you don't think your mom will mind?" asked Naruto, speaking up before Tazuna could object, he could already see the old man opening his mouth to do just that.

"Naw, she's always said she wished you and your team came to wish more often," claimed Inari, and Naruto grinned.

"Yatta!" proclaimed Naruto, "alright, let's get this bridge cleared off!" Naruto took only a moment to take in the damage that his newest jutsu had unleashed. There were boulders that that flown from the mountain side scattered across the surface of the bridge, as well as beams and cables. Deep gashes had been gorged into the once smooth concrete surface and there where at least three sections on either side of the bridge that had completely collapsed. Maybe, Naruto thought, when Gokomatsu of Iwa had taught him the basics of his own Rock Cocoon, he should have taught him how to control it.

* * *

Several days later, after another day of heavy lifting and hard work, in which Naruto did not immediately collapse after dinner, he found himself sitting at the dinner table, writing utensils and supplies surrounding him. He lightly blew on the slip of parchment before him, trying to hurry the drying process of the ink. He rested the ink splattered brush on the inking stone to clear his hands so he could bring the parchment closer to his lips so none of his effort was wasted. When he was assured that the ink wasn't about to run down the length of the rough material he returned it to its position on the table. Naruto let his tongue slip out from between his chapped pink lips as he read over the note.

He wasn't a writer, so the letter wasn't eloquent but he hoped that it got his message across. Naruto did feel a little uncomfortable about sending the letter, he felt as though he had born too much of his soul within the confines of the short letter. Naruto had always been optimistic but as he read over the letter he found more pessimism spun into the short message than he admitted to ever leave his lips, and that was what made him the most uncomfortable. He ignored the feeling that he had somehow betrayed himself because what he had written had to be told, and Naruto was thankful the person he was sending it to he could trust to keep the sensitive information a secret, or mostly a secret.

_Granny,_

_How are you? I am fine just lost. I took a wrong turn somewhere, and started to question a few things. I still haven't quite figured out the answer, but I will. I also might have made a mistake or two along the way, but I'm in the middle of fixing it, so don't worry 'bout it. I hope that Konoha is well. I've always loved the forest outside the city in the summer. Recently I've seen so much and been everywhere. There are times I don't think I'll go back to Konoha. Tell Sakura and Shizune I say hi. Maybe I'll see you soon,_

_ Naruto_

With careful hands Naruto rolled the note and tied it off with a piece of twine. He prayed it would get to the Hokage in one piece as he slipped the note in his pocket in order to send it with a messenger bird before work the next day. He had been reminiscing about Konoha all morning, but as he left the room and was greeted by a jovial Inari, Naruto couldn't regret where he had ended up.

He could not have known that later as he hired the last of the town's civilian carrier pigeons—the oldest feathered flyer there— that on its way to Konoha it would encounter some difficulties. Some of which included losing its way, a mild tropical storm, as well as an injured wing. His letter would not reach it's intended for at least a month and a half.

* * *

"_Clearing that bridge was the easiest part…"_

_To be continued…_

**A/N: I've been meaning to finish this chapter ages ago. I had the last letter portion written out for months, just not how the letter would come about be. There aren't that many chapters remaining, that is unless I suddenly have a brilliant insight about what else to add. You see I've had the timeline written out since before I began this story, but I will admit I haven't followed them to the T. Oh well.**


	11. Happy Accidents

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer**: _I do not claim to own that which has already been created, patented, or copyrighted._

* * *

"_Clearing that bridge was the easiest part…"_

Naruto proudly looked over the newly cleared bridge. The once almost completed bridge resembled a dotted line now, but Naruto figured it would be an easy fix, after all it had only taken 7 and a half hours to clear it all off (and approximately 3 minutes to destroy it), could it really take that long to put it back together?

At the sound of a sigh Naruto turned to see old man Tazuna with his customary towel strung around his neck, beads of sweat decorating his upper lip and forehead. Naruto frowned in displeasure because from what he knew the old man hadn't lifted a finger, in fact he _knew_ the old man hadn't. The old man had even sent the other workers home when they had started to show up for work, to further punish Naruto, he'd bet. After all, the workers had already had the week off as it had taken Naruto as long as that to get Tsunami's approval to do hard labor after his fight and consequential poisoning by Kanaye of the White Rain.

"Hey why do you look like you just spent the better half of the day clearing off the bridge when you got to sit around all day drinking lemonade and eating that lunch Tsunami made you!" blustered Naruto conscious of the injustice.

"The sun is a lot closer in Lightning then it is in Wave," commented Tazuna with a nonchalant shrug, suppressing a secret grin at the boy's rising ire, "besides it's your fault for destroying my bridge in the first place! It was the least you could do."

"So what, you didn't even save me _one_ bite of rice you cranky old man! I was the one who did all that work and Tsunami told you to share!"

"Oh well, no use crying o'er lost rice," advised Tazuna as he stood up from his position on a stack of savaged steel beams, his back cracking with the motion.

"I'm starving! I was the one who did all the work!" shouted the displeased and grumpy Naruto.

"Ya're also the reason all that work needed doin'," grunted Tazuna with a scowl in the blond's direction before dusting off his pants, "Well come along brat, we have a lot ta do yet before the sun sets entirely." With that said Tazuna began to stumble his way around the construction tools that Naruto had managed to save from the wreckage.

"The sun's already setting, didn't think that one through didya?" muttered Naruto with a scowl as he followed the path Tazuna was blazing.

"That's why I said _entirely_ set, ya should probably get those giant ears of yars checked you buffoon!" Tazuna shouted over his shoulder. Naruto paused to stick out his tongue at the crotchety old man's back.

"Hey, Tazuna what did those Nin's from earlier want?" asked Naruto curiously as he alluded to the gathering of Kumo Nins that had been questioning Tazuna that morning.

Naruto had had to wait a whole week before he could get this punishment over with as his lungs had needed the time to recover from the bout of smoke inhalation caused by that Missing Nin's jutsu (never mind that Naruto was fully recovered by the end of the day, but try telling Tsunami that.) In that week he hadn't exactly been informed in the village's happenings after the spotting of the dangerous Missing Nin, Tsunami had had him on strict bed rest and refused to let either Inari or Tazuna tell him anything that might excite him and disrupt the healing process. So imagine his surprise when upon his return to the bridge he had spotted a group of elite Kumo Nins talking with Tazuna.

Naruto had done the first reasonable thing that had come to mind, he had panicked.

He _knew_ he had needed to calm down and think of an escape route because surely that guard that had refused him entry into the country had sent these Nins after him, telling them lies about his being that Kanaye guy.

With a deep breath and a pinch, a plan took form and he performed a clothed version of his Sexy no Jutsu. Naruto needn't have worried; however, as the Nins hadn't even batted an eyelash when the skimpily dressed, busty blond had found her way to Tazuna's side, in fact they had just bowed to the bridge builder and left the second she had arrived.

"They were the search party sent out the day ya got here ta look for tha' missin'-nin," informed Tazuna gruffly, he'd rather not dwell on the source of his current predicament, or at least a part of the reason. It was hard to avoid the other when they slept in the room next to your own and was at that very moment walking beside him.

"Did they find him?" asked Naruto.

"Naw, tha's why the group of 'em stopped by, they had hop'd ta pick up on some clue or another before we started ta clear off the bridge, suppose it wasn't much help though, they left in a tizz, seemed a bit angry if ya ask me," scoffed Tazuna with a shake of his shaggy head.

Naruto went silent, it wasn't everyday that a ninja couldn't pick up on a fresh trail, an old one yeah sure it was understandable if they couldn't follow their guy. But those Nin had been sent out only a few hours after that missing-nin had fled and to keep them running in circles for the following week? Naruto supposed the nin was better at covering his tracks then Naruto would have first suspected. Naruto shrugged, there wasn't much he could do about it now, it wasn't like he planned on going off to search for the guy, he didn't have any kind of particular drive too, anyway. Naruto started slightly once he noticed that when he had been lost in thought Tazuna had gotten ahead of him, Naruto easily picked up his pace.

"Hey, Hey Tazuna where are we going anyway?" asked Naruto inquisitively when he finally caught up with a winded Tazuna at the end of the bridge, Naruto wasn't even panting.

"We're going ta see a man about some worker's," informed Tazuna after he finally got his breath back. Naruto didn't have the slightest idea of what he was talking about but decided he had better tag along to find out.

* * *

Naruto hadn't really been paying attention to where they were going so the next thing he knew he found himself entering a smoky room as he bypassed two fully armored men. The room had curtains gathered at the highest point of the domed ceiling, its ends draping down the walls, blocking out any light that didn't originate in the room. In the dim lighting Naruto could just barely make out one large desk situated on the furthest wall from the door, where a large fat man lounged, a long pipe dangling between his teeth.

"Ah Tazuna, I was wondering when you'd be coming here," the man mumbled around his smoking pipe. Naruto watched the man closely, a baffled air about him, as his eyes adjusted to the gloom. He had never seen such a large man, and the way his trailing mustache twitched with each word was amusing.

"Nee, Tazuna, he has more hair under his nose then he does on the top of his head," whispered Naruto, hoping the tension that had set into the old man's shoulders would loosen up soon. Naruto never did well around high strung individuals.

"Silence your brat, Tazuna!" blubbered the man, his pipe nearly tumbling from his slackened lips. Tazuna turned slightly towards Naruto, a warning look alight his otherwise stoic face. "Now this is about your workers isn't it? Or should I say _my_ workers?"

"What else would this be about? They came today ta inform me they could no longer work for me, they mentioned that _you _had offered 'em a better job with better pay in the city," Tazuna said with a scowl he usually reserved for Naruto and Monday mornings. "The question is, why are _you_ so adamant about preventing the construction of this bridge."

Naruto was briefly reminded of Gato and had to wonder what it was about bridge building that invited sabotage and assassination. After a moment's thought, Naruto speculated if he should really be asking what was it about _Tazuna _that welcomed sabotage and assassination? Though the bridge builder did have a bit of a nasty attitude that made him hard to get along with, Naruto supposed that had something to do with it. Naruto would know—he had worked under the builder during Tazuna's last bridge project in Wave Country, and even _he'd _been tempted to rebel against the builder.

"It's not that I don't want the bridge completed, in fact I look forward to the day that it is, it'll make business… _transactions…_ so much easier to accomplish," the man's mustache twitched with each word and spit clung to his whiskers, Naruto snarled in disgust, he took it back it wasn't amusing it was sickening, "it's just… your construction is taking far too long and with each passing day you and your family continue to overstay your welcome," he sent Tazuna a heated glare as he tapped the bowl of his pipe onto his desk, sparks of burnt tobacco skittering across the desk's scarred surface before he retrieved a small pouch from a hidden pocket of his overly large robes, "add to that that the longer you stay here the likely hood of more instances like last week increases," the man struck a match, dipping its flaming tip into the newly stuffed pipe before taking a drag, the motion hiding a sinister grin, "Yes the bridge's construction would go along far smoother if someone else were to take the lead on it." The larger man took another pull from his pipe, the embers lighting up the sharp contorts of his face in a red glow before he exhaled a ring of smoke in Tazuna's face, making the old man splutter and cough as he waved away the offensive smoke.

"Are ya tryin' to get me fired from the construction of a bridge _I _designed?" growled Tazuna, knowing the longer he stayed in this gangster's presence the shorter the fuse on his temper would become, "and gettin' me fired 'cause of some cursed hogwash the villagers of a foreign land have spouted in jest?"

Naruto watched from the sidelines as Tazuna confronted the man without really paying attention. He was far more interested in watching the movements behind the man. The curtains that hung off of the wall shifted from some unexpected breeze, and Naruto watched amused as the smoke from the man's pipe drifted behind him, indicating a draft of some sort. He wondered if he could pinpoint the exact area using the same trick he had just witnessed with the smoke…

"Hey, Tazuna, is there a window behind that Mustache Guy?" asked Naruto after a few minutes of guesswork, interrupting the arguing pair without much thought to their discussion. Naruto was sure whatever they were discussing wasn't getting anywhere fast; he distinctly remembered accusations and raised voices without any sounds of resolve.

"_What_ are ya talkin' about Naruto?" questioned Tazuna shortly; did this brat ever know when to _keep quiet_? Tazuna was already bristling from the man's insinuations but having the brat interrupt wasn't helping to calm his growing fury. Tazuna puffed out a breath as he tried to remember why he had invited the brat along hoping the insight would calm him. He was sure there was something about protection in his carefully thought out plan earlier, not that he remembered much from that plan now.

"Hey, Mustache Guy, what's that behind you? How come there's a draft in here?" questioned Naruto, who had become accustomed to having most his questions go unanswered. Naruto looked around him, his sharp eyes taking in more insignificant details, such as a pile of papers on either side of the large man's large desk, or how the only light came from a dim lamp behind Naruto, which cast eerie shadows across Mustache's face, and as Naruto counted shadows he was surprised to only count three, Tazuna's, his, and Mustache's although he thought he had heard a human grunt sound from behind Mustache Guy. Naruto shrugged it off, since he hadn't been paying attention whoever it had been must have snuck off earlier, he knew he had wished he could have. "Don't you know reading and writing in this low light hurts your eyes?"

Mustache however remained oddly silent as he turned his full attention to the blond that had accompanied Tazuna. He hadn't expected the old bridge builder to bring along someone with such sharp eyes. The low lighting of the den usually kept such prying questions away, it was bothersome when they started to ask questions. The large man frowned as he lifted his large hand to unhook the pipe from his clenched teeth, he didn't need to bite through another mouthpiece, as he tipped the bowl of the pipe against the desk, in agitation.

Tazuna perked up, as he watched the embers from the pipe splash over the desk, the red glow lighting up the singed desktop. For a second, Tazuna swore he saw the reflected glow of an ember on polished metal, and Tazuna grew leery as he took an instinctual step back.

"You have a problem, brat?" asked the large man, his face no longer glowing from the flaming tobacco.

"Naw, I was just wondering where all that smoke went!" asked Naruto with a foxy grin that told the mustached man he knew exactly what had happened.

"What!" asked the large man, with far more feeling then Naruto thought was necessary. The large man growled and wondered if that brat had known that there was a special chemical in that smoke that slowly poisoned an individual making them lethargic and weak, enough to bring even the strongest of ninjas to their knees in exhaustion and weakness.

"You should be thanking me!" assured Naruto, "it was suffocating in here! Plus I've been practicing Wind Jutsu's so I just used my jutsus to fan the smoke into that wall with the draft! Really you should be thanking me! The other day I had smoke inhalation, and let me tell you, it is not fun, not even slightly!" proudly declared Naruto as he barely repressed a shudder.

The room had been really rather smoky, nearly overpowering Naruto with its sickly scent. Plus the doctor Tsunami had brought home the other day to check up on Naruto _had_ told him to avoid smoky places until his lungs had cleared themselves out. But really if Naruto was being honest he had just wanted an excuse to practice his control. The crack in the wall was rather small and Naruto had never been the best at precision and… Tazuna and Mustache Man's conversation had been boring, _really_ boring. Naruto smiled, he could already imagine the praise he would receive when he told Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade and Sakura-chan his accomplishment.

The man gasped, and with a speed Naruto hadn't expected from the otherwise languid man the man whipped around in his seat, tearing back the curtain to reveal a crack in a dully colored brick wall, small wisps of smoke spiraling out. A soulless black pupil surfaced in a sea of red, just barely visible in the glow of the room's single lamp. Tazuna's eyes widened in fright and he took a step back at the ominous air coming from that one visible eye alone. The gangster swore loudly, his short, fat fingers clawing at mortar and brick.

Naruto let out one sharp impressed whistle as he clambered his way beside the desperate mustached man, his hands tucked in his pockets, his eyes half lidded with exhaustion after working on the bridge all day. Naruto leant down to look into the crack, but the glow of the lamp on the opposite side of room did nothing to illuminate the man hidden inside the wall.

"That's a rather tricky situation you found yourself in, how come you have a man locked in a wall behind your desk?" Naruto earnestly questioned alternately asking the man behind the wall and mustache guy.

"Shut up you little monster!" crowed the large man, and Naruto was surprised his howling hadn't alerting the man's lackeys on the other side of the door. "Help him! Save him! You did this, now fix it!" howled the man desperately the pipe clenched in his hands falling to the ground, before it was trampled underneath stomping feet. Naruto didn't need long to contemplate the man's request, he was rather fascinated by the action of the black eye in the crack. Naruto watched disinterestedly as the eye began to flutter closed, as if the man in the wall was fighting a losing battle.

"That can't be good," murmured Naruto as he easily summoned a shadow clone to power up a compact Rasengan, trying to calculate the right amount of power to blow a hole in the wall without taking down the whole building.

"Naruto!" cried Tazuna from where he stood, plastered into the wall opposite the commotion, his eyes betraying his surprise as the very air around them began to hum with power, a small blue ball of charka pulsated in anticipation forming in Naruto's hands. The blue glow of energy illuminated the wide grin on the Naruto's faces, turning it sinister, the large, mustached man whimpered and backed away slightly at the apparent bloodthirsty look on the boy nin's face. Naruto and his clone exchanged a nod before a small poof of smoke claimed the space one Naruto once stood, the large man flinched away and he took two giant steps further away from the boy.

"Yah!" grunted Naruto as he thrust the glowing Rasengan into the mortar and brick, hopping backwards when a waterfall of dust and brick washed downwards. Smoke began its reemergence into the room but with one swift, charka enhanced kick to the wall behind the collapsed man sent a rush of clean, damp air and watery lantern light into the den. Naruto coughed as he ran a hand through his earth stained hair, brushing off the grime that clung to his hair. "Huh?" muttered Naruto as he bent down next to the snoozing man, covered from head to toe in red dust.

"Is he—is he alive?" asked Tazuna as he made his way towards Naruto's side, having deemed the structure of the building safe from collapse as well as the reality that the man was truly unconscious. Tazuna sent a pitting scowl towards the shell-shocked gangster a few meters away from the destruction Naruto had wrought.

"Yeah, he's fine," answered Naruto with a wave of his hand, "it's not like a little smoke can kill you."

"Nearly killed _you_," murmured Tazuna to himself as he reached out to brush some of the soot off of the man, "how'd he get in there? And why is there a secret…" Tazuna paused to look at the room the man had been trapped in, figuring out the right words, "closet in the wall?"

"Hey, hey isn't this that missing nin?" crowed Naruto, when the nin's white blonde hair became apparent in the dull yellow light of the street lamp a few yards away from the building. With careful fingers Naruto rubbed the dirt away from the man's cheeks, in order to get a clear view of the missing nin's more distinct features, the gorging scars on either side of his cheeks, some clan's distinction mark Naruto had been told.

"Well there's tha' money trouble solved," murmured Tazuna as he plopped down beside the hole in the wall, "if we wait here a minute or two those Kumo nin will be right over, no need ta rush things, 'ey Naru-chan?"

Naruto scowled at the nickname, but nodded all the same. Kayane wasn't going anywhere for the next several hours, and if he tried Naruto would be there to happily detain him once again.

* * *

Just as Tazuna had predicted a large group of Kumo Nin had been dispatched to investigate the large pull of chakra in the area. Within an hour the missing nin had been collected as had the gangster for all his troubles at the conclusion of the Nin's investigation.

As it turned out the Mustached man had had a run in with the missing nin where he had struck a deal to hide the man away from the tracking nins that were already looking for him. All Kayane had to do was do something for the gangster in return. One of which was to show up at the developing sky bridge as workers arrived and scare them away.

This part of the plan had of course gone awry at Naruto's early arrival and subsequent battle with Kanaye. There had been an instinctual part of Kayane that had reacted to Naruto's arrival, and the missing nin had fought like a dying man for his survival.

In the end both had been caught before they could do anymore damage, and both Naruto and Tazuna had been heavily rewarded.

* * *

"_Well that was kind of an accident, but so was getting trapped in _that _city…"_

_To be continued…_

**A/N: Sorry it's taken so long, before this was posted it had to go through extensive revision in order to lengthen and improve this chapter. But as a side note, there are only a few more chapters left! I hope to get this story done before I'm off for another semester in college in the spring. Here's to setting goals!**


	12. Quarantined

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim to own that which has already been created, patented, or copyrighted.

* * *

"_Well that was kind of an accident, but so was getting trapped in _that _city…"_

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked over the hand-drawn map once again. He distinctly remembered Tsunami and Inari telling him that he only had to follow this one road until it split into three paths then there would be a sign telling him which way to go from there. He had done that except…

The sign in front of him was telling him to go _back _the way he had just come.

This can't be right, Naruto decided as he squinted his eyes, taking in the woods around him. But if he kept going straight he'd end up in _Suna_.

"At least I'm in Fire Country," Naruto murmured out loud as he plopped down in front of the sign, his back resting against the sign's worn wooden post.

"I couldn't help but overhearing, but lad, are you lost?"

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin as he looked up. Before him stood a squat old woman a shabby walking stick in hand; her hair was thin and balding while her wrinkles were deeper then the canyon Jiraiya had once thrown him down. Her blind milky blue eyes were shadowed by small circular, tinted lenses.

"You ask something Granny?" asked Naruto, with an inquiring glance. Naruto didn't bother standing up, though he doubted the woman would know otherwise, she seemed to be talking to someone over his shoulder.

"Are you lost? You seem a bit miss placed," answered the woman with a tilt of her head. Naruto gasped in surprise.

"How'd you know that! Can you read my mind?" asked Naruto and after a few moments of thought added, "is that some kind of Jutsu? And if it is… can you teach me?"

"It takes no Jutsu to feel that you are downtrodden, my boy," answered the old lady with a soft chuckle that turned into hacking coughs after a moment.

"Oh," replied Naruto as he deflated, but with a bounce persevered, "You must know which way Konoha is! Right, Granny?"

"Yes, I—" began the lady as she pulled her brown cloak closer when an unbidden breeze swept through the crossroads.

"Great! Then you can tell me which way to go! I don't really have to go that way do I?" interrupted Naruto waving his hand in the direction he had just gone, forgetting she couldn't see the movement.

"You don't have to…" agreed the lady and Naruto was ecstatic, he was sure if he followed the sign he would end up somewhere else entirely, but while lost in thought he didn't hear the lady add, "if you don't want to end up in Konoha."

"Un huh! Alright, which way should I go?" encouraged Naruto, an eager smile on his face; he might only be a few days travel from Konoha! The old lady meanwhile frowned, blinking her sightless eyes.

"That way is the best way…" the old lady pointed behind her and Naruto was off like a flash before the lady could finish, "to get into trouble."

Naruto paused minutes later on his path turning to thank the old lady before she was out of sight and shouted, "Thanks granny! You've really helped me!"

The lady sighed loudly, her ancient ears didn't look nearly as well as they use too, so she blinked her unseeing eyes, and rubbed her unhearing ears as she addressed the obviously lost boy.

"There's a village in Quarantine I heard, I don't believe it if you'd ask me, that village does train world renowned Medics, but what's the knowledge of an old woman these days," the lady grumbled before pointing towards the path she knew the sign lead, just barely able to make out a dark wobbly outline, "the best way to Konoha however is just to follow the signs, for a Hidden Village their big on tourism."

The wind howled and brought the stirrings of a message long silenced and the lady smiled.

"You're welcome lad! Glad I could be of some use," the lady told the wind before she began to shuffle down her own path walking stick leading the way.

* * *

Naruto sighed as swatted a rotten fish tail away from his grimy blond hair wondering just how he had gotten into such a precarious position.

He had been traveling rather happily for the past few days along the same path the Lady had told him would be best, and although none of the scenery had been familiar he had carried on. At least until an obstacle presented itself in the form of a town, guards posted at every corner.

He could have easily walked around the city but his curiosity had been excited, and he had never been one to leave a mystery unsolved. So he had done what he would have done in any other situation… he investigated.

It was already his third day on the outskirts of the Mysterious Village and he had yet to get pass the patrolling guards. He had staged multiple break-ins including—but not limited too—jumping the wall, digging underneath the walls, and having a mass of disguised shadow clones dash the guards, all of which proved futile.

His latest venture had produced the same conclusion as he now found himself in a polluted river that ran underneath the Village and out its walls through a gated hole. The whole river was filled with rotted and rotting fish pieces and other such sparse debris that gravitated towards his hair, of all places.

Naruto had tried swimming through the sewage river, but his progression had been halted when he came across the large Iron Gate that had even been sealed against charka use. It was the only thing separating Naruto from the city's underworld and he couldn't bypass its superior defenses. After five hours of badgering the bars with everything he could think of, Naruto had finally conceded defeat to the grating.

Naruto was now floating down the river on his back, eyebrows furrowed, and a frown tugging on his usually cheery mouth, silent in gloomy deliberation.

'_I'm a ninja for goodness sake,'_ thought Naruto with a dogged scowl, _'I bet if I had my headband that confirmed I'm a Konoha nin they'd let me in the Village, no questions asked.'_

Naruto exhaled loudly and turned to look at the sunny sky. He had been trying to break past the gate since dusk. He was tried and only slightly disheartened but he was as resolute as ever to get into the Village.

He knew that he _would_ get into the Village, he just didn't know _how_.

Naruto grinned, this was a challenge he wasn't about to back down from. He hadn't been his invigorated about something since that monster fish had nearly made him dinner a year ago.

* * *

Naruto grinned as he adjusted the gleaming metal plate on his forehead, why hadn't he thought of this earlier?

The guards had been surprised at his latest attempt, and even though he was disguised he wasn't under any illusions they hadn't recognized him, his orange scarf _was _still hanging around his neck. Naruto was just ecstatic that he had finally outwitted the guards; after all they couldn't refuse entry to a ninja. Well… they couldn't refuse a ninja from this providence, foreign ninja's would have been denied at all costs.

Naruto did wonder about the malice smirks the guards sent him as he walked in the village but in the end decided to pay them no mind and promptly forgot about any such happenstance.

Naruto walked uprightly into the Village a grin in place once he finally cleared the sight of the gatekeepers before he reached up to untie his headband. With a poof the metal plate and fabric disappeared in a cloud of smoke only to be replaced by a Naruto-clone.

"Good job, boss," smirked the clone as he gave a sloppy salute to the other prior to laughing and giving the other a high five.

"Yosh, now it's time to figure out what's going on in this weird town!" cheered Naruto, with a definitive nod towards his clone before the copy dissolved into smoke.

"Who are you boy? A ninja?" crowed an old bent man. Naruto's heart leapt as he nearly jumped out of his skin for the second time that week, he hadn't thought he'd be caught so early, maybe now that he was in the guards would let him stay, even if he wasn't a ninja was proper identification? "We don't get visitors," the old man went on to say, "now that the village's been 'Quarantined', bunch a hog wash really, don't know why Konoha hasn't sent a ninja team sooner."

"Whaddaya mean Quarantined? Whaddoes that mean, anyway?" questioned Naruto when he deemed he was safe and the old man wasn't going to call the guards to take him away.

"I mean Quarantined, yah know there's suppose to be some big disease infecting everybody, let me tell you I've never seen it, my boy'sa Doctor, you know, and _he_ tells me there _isn't_ a disease called 'Sporenicosis'," grumbled the crippled old man and Naruto wondered why the man was so vocal about his Village's troubles. Usually when he went to investigate something everyone was a lot more closed mouthed and angry.

"Wait…" interrupted Naruto, trying to grasp just what the man was saying, "how'dya know I was a ninja?"

"You did have a Konoha headband on 'til you used your ninja magic to turn it into your teammate before he used_ his_ ninja tricks to investigate the enemy patrol or report to your team outside or whatever you ninja's do," explained the old man exasperated, "I'm not tah an idiot, boy."

"Oh right, okay, Yosh, let's go old man, tell me what's going on in here, as we… investigate!" cheered Naruto with a grin, before he encouraged the man forward, if they stayed standing so close to the gate the patrolling guards were bound to notice he didn't have his headband anymore and kick him out without so much as a 'but—'.

This man might be crazy, Naruto considered, but if Naruto didn't play along he might raise the alarm bell on him. Naruto only had to play along until night anyway, then he'd simply jump over the wall or walk right out the front gate, he had just wanted to _get_ in, not _stay_ in, after all.

"Where do we start lad?" asked the old man as he hobbled down the road after Naruto. Naruto suspected that the old man was way too happy for the situation this Village supposedly found its self in, but Naruto figured if _he _had gotten to help a ninja with his job when he was younger he'd be just as excited, so Naruto waved it off.

"Well, we should start…" Naruto paused; he had to think about this. Ninja protocol wasn't exactly on the forefront of his mind nowadays, ninja skills certainly; he trained those every day even when on the road, but leading an investigation? Now that wasn't something Naruto was good at even before his year long hiatus.

"Don't you ninja's mostly creep along, shadowing those good-for-nothings?" asked the old man.

"I think you've been watching one too many Ninja dramas, old man," grumbled Naruto, although the idea did have merit, "how about we go talk to that Doctor son of yours? See what this Quarantined business is all about?"

"Ah, that'd be an excellent idea, except my son, along with every other Nurse, Doctor, and trainee have been locked away," shrugged the Man acting a lot less concerned then Naruto would have thought appropriate for having a son locked away.

"What's the point in that?" asked Naruto, his voice growing loud.

"Calm yourself boy, it's not like I can't ever see him, I just have to wait for the days he's got duty to the hospital, those good-for-nothings still let 'em out for their shift at the hospital," waved off the man. Naruto frowned, these 'good-for-nothings' that the man was talking about sure sounded odd, and weird, and even though Naruto wasn't the best mastermind these guys' plans made no sense what so ever.

"Then what's the point of keeping them locked away in the first place?" nearly shouted Naruto, this whole Village was rather frustrating and Naruto could feel the irritation bubble in his chest, "and why won't they just let these medic people go home? If no one's sick, why are those guys still here? And lastly! Who are these good-for-nothings anyway?"

"No need to yell laddie," grumbled the old man as he buried a finger in the hairy shell of his right ear, "besides their _Doctors_ boy, they ain't ninja they still took an oath to help the people, no matter if their hostile takeover-ers or not…"

"Wait what?" Naruto interrupted as he looked over the man, something about what he'd said niggling the corner of a long forgotten piece of his brain, "say that again, only differently."

The old man scowled as he looked at the boy ninja, he'd heard stories about the oddness that were the Ninja, especially the rumors of _Konoha's _ninja. The old man wondered if his Village was being helped by the strangest of them all before wondering if it was really worth getting help from the clearly unstable.

"I waz sayin' that Doctors can't just refuse to help anybody, they took an oath, even if it means helpin' those good-for-nothings," complied the man, his scowl deepening when Naruto still couldn't seem to grasp what he was saying.

"Soo…" Naruto said, trying to pierce the pieces together, "if these guys brought _their _injured or sick then… then…"

"Our Doctors would be honor bound to help them," nodded the man.

"How come they couldn't just _ask_ for help if that was the case?" Naruto wondered out loud, pausing in his trek through the small village to gather his thoughts.

"Suppose they don't know how, or suppose this was a case of the Doctors having refused to help 'em," shrugged the old man as he picked up his hobbling pace to catch up to the stopped Naruto.

"But why here?" asked Naruto as he looked around the village skeptically. The houses weren't large and the shops weren't extravagant, in fact the whole village was small and average… and entirely normal—in the non-ninja way.

"You mean you don't know where you are?" asked the old man suspiciously, "didn't those ninja superiors of yours tell you were you where goin'?"

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked down at the old man, now was not the time to be caught in the act of playing Ninja (never mind he really was one). From the looks of things Naruto would be stuck here for at least another few days, just to figure out what these 'good-for-nothings' were up too. He really didn't want to lose his old man's cooperation, because Naruto was certain that he wasn't ever going to find a more willing informant.

"Um…" began Naruto thinking quickly, "they did… well they told my commander, my, um, my ninja leader didn't want to tell anyone else, in case… in case we were captured before we got to the destination, you know because we're ninja."

Naruto held his breath for a few terrifying moments as the old man's eyes narrowed as he looked over Naruto, critically.

"Suppose that makes sense, but to not know you were being sent to the world renowned Village of the Medics, seems silly, suppose I did see it on one of those Ninja Dramas the old ball n' chain likes to watch," conceded the old man and Naruto let out a breath of relief.

"Village of the Medics?" questioned Naruto with a suppressed guffaw, now that he wasn't under the intense trustless glare of the old man. Could this Village have picked a less ridiculous name?

"That's just the Village's nickname," sniffed the old man, "seein' as this Village is filled with Doctors both training and retired."

Naruto waved off the man's wounded pride before continuing walking, his sharp eyes taking in everything around him, even if the sights didn't really register.

"So why would the Doctors refuse to help these guys, anyway?" asked Naruto before he stuttered to a halt and abruptly turned into an alley, dragging the man behind him. The old man squawked, but Naruto was grateful the man didn't struggle anymore then that as a group of those 'good-for-nothings' made their way down the street.

Naruto covered the man's mouth to ascertain that the man wouldn't make a noise before he glanced over the buildings edge to observe the group and hopefully gather information about what this Village was up against.

There was about four of them in the group and they were classically positioned with one in front, one in back and two in the middle flanking the sides. If Naruto had to guess he would say that the group didn't know what they were doing. They formation was a perfect 'Directional' but they seemed uncomfortable in their uniforms.

Their foreheads and forearms were bare of any ninja identification and the more Naruto watched them he wasn't surprised. Their footwork was sloppy and their boots heavy, their clanking footsteps echoed off the abandoned streets noisily. In fact when Naruto looked them over they all seemed young and unsure and frightened as well if not extremely pale.

When they turned the corner Naruto sighed in relief.

"Ugh," groaned Naruto in disgust as he wiped his hand on his pants, "you licked me."

"Next time I'll bite yah if you keep puttin' your dirty hands over mah mouth," grumbled the old man with a scowl, "yah didn't need to hide the guards in here wouldn't hurt a fly, they're too sick to put up much a fight."

"Sick?" wondered Naruto, "why would you let your sick guards stay here?"

"Suppose this is why they can keep the Village under Quarantine, someone had to be sick, besides they can get treatment here so long as they're in the village," shrugged the old man.

"You don't seem so concerned about your village being taken hostage," called out Naruto as he stumbled out of the alley, still wiping his hand on his wool pants, it had been the only fabric that could stand up to bridge building, and he wasn't about to complain about their warmth against the Autumn chill that had settled over Fire Country.

"The real good-for-nothings are those guys guarding the gates outside, the ones inside aren't too bad, I just want to be able to visit my other grandchildren outside the Village every once in a while, yah know?" shrugged the man as he hobbled in front of Naruto.

"If that's the only reason then what's the point?" grumbled Naruto thinking that Konoha was only a stone's throw away. Would stalling his return really be worth helping an old man see his grandchildren when in a few weeks these good-for-nothings would probably get bored and leave on their own. But even as the thought crossed his mind, Naruto shook it off, that was no way to think about these people situation.

"Well I'm sure that the nearby Villages will have something to say sooner or later, this Village is at the forefront on medical knowledge," shrugged the man, "trust me I use to be a Doctor, I know how valuable the others find this village."

Naruto thought it sounded like the man was trying to convince him of something. Naruto shrugged in return, it wasn't like Naruto needed convincing, as it was it would probably be best for this man to try to persuade him _not _to help his Village, if only to further persuade Naruto to help.

"Here follow me, there's some people I want you to meet," muttered the man as he turned down the same alley that the two had recently hidden in.

Naruto scowled but followed along behind the hunched form of his guide. Naruto had found out some of what was going on in this Village but most of it didn't make sense. He had to wonder if these sickly guards could _really_ keep these medics under wraps or if this old man was just exaggerating.

Konoha was so close Naruto could _hear_ them. He almost imagined he could hear Tsunade calling him an idiot and Eyebrows and his sensei exclaiming about youth. The thought gave him comfort, and although for the splitest of seconds he imagined just leaving this Village for a few hours just to go home before returning but with a shake of his head he forgot any such thought.

He might as well help these people now, if they really wanted to be free, before he went home, at least then he'd be able to relax. Besides what was another day or two after a whole year?

* * *

"_I might have underestimated those good-for-nothings…"_

_To be continued…_

* * *

_A/N: I'll try to get the second part out before I start Spring Semester in April, but I'm afraid there's no guarantees, I might have forgotten about my complete lack of self-discipline when I said I was going to try to finish this story soon. Sorry guys, :(._


	13. A Flash of Insight

**Which Way to Konoha?**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim to own that which has already been created, patented, or copyrighted.

* * *

"_I might have underestimated those good-for-nothings…"_

Naruto squinted in the gloom of the dank malodorous pub the old man had taken him too. The contrasting light of the bright day and dark room was enough to leave Naruto's eyes watering and he hoped his eyes would adjust soon; something was going on, he could feel it in his bones.

"Ah, old man, there you are, what've you been up too?" asked a shadow from over to Naruto's right. Naruto blinked, his eyes adjusted enough so that he could stare up at the shadowy man in awe. The man was built like a building, his muscles had muscles and Naruto was sure the man's wide shoulders were more a hindrance then a help as well as the man's tall frame. Naruto had to wonder how this man could sit up straight with the room's shallow, short ceiling.

The room, previously filled with sounds of tittering bar patrons, quieted and it set Naruto on edge. The other two men didn't seem to notice (and if they had noticed they certainly didn't mind) that the whole bars' attention was turned towards the bar's newest clients and their confrontation with the large man.

"I just brought someone I thought could help us," grumbled the crippled Man as he stood up to the imposing frame of the ill built man. Naruto thought the height difference between the small old man and the imposing man was rather amusing, but as a new thought entered his mind Naruto turned his attention between the tall man and the doorway, an inquisitive look on his face.

"Seems a bit skittish if you ask me, like he's about to bolt," groused the tall man, his deep timbre reverberating throughout the bar top he was leaning against.

"What do you mean!" cried the old man offended, "he's as tough as steel, should of seen him early, using his ninja tricks to investigate the place!"

Naruto wondered briefly if the old man was trying to sell Naruto's ability or if it was really just a case of hurt pride on the elder's part. With a shrug Naruto decided not to think anymore of it and continued his investigation of the door on the other side of the room.

"That so?" muttered the tall man as he turned his full attention to the stocky and short figure of the teenage ninja. "What have you to say in your defense, boy?"

Naruto started and looked up startled; he hadn't expected to be addressed. Naruto took a step towards the imposing man, eyebrows drawn in question. He stopped just in front of the man and leaned in close to the man's face a question reflecting in his eyes. Naruto's blue eyes taking in the taller man's 5 o'clock shadow and hooded eyes, Naruto wondered just who this man was.

"How'd you even get in here?" asked Naruto as he took a turn around the room.

"Whaddya mean boy?" growled the imposing man, withdrawing minutely from the ninja's inquiring eyes, a feeling of dread sinking in, maybe the old man had finally found someone useful.

"Well your shoulders are too wide for the door," acknowledged Naruto with an inquisitive look, the taller man wondered if that was supposed to be a metaphor, "you obviously aren't one of the sickly guards and you can't be a medic, so… what are you?"

The man stood, his shoulders hunched and neck bent at a ninety degree angle, the only way he was able stand in the shallow room, although if Naruto wasn't mistaken he was unnaturally tense and a little twitchy. With a shrug, Naruto decided not to think any more of it and allowed his thoughts to wander, he wondered if he was suppose to be intimidated by the man when he had next to no chakra reserves and only released the slightest wisps of killing intent into the air.

"Why you brat, how dare you question my existence!" roared the man, and Naruto thought his roar was rather mild. It barely resonated off the walls.

"I didn't question your existence, I was just wondering how you got in the room, your shoulders make it impossible for you to come in through the door!" Naruto shouted back, he had learned at a young age that the only way to deal with these sorts of situations was to yell just as loudly if not louder back at them. The taller man had to wonder why this brat was using the same metaphor twice, he couldn't have been any clearer the first time.

"Who do you think you are, coming into this Village and questioning its inhabitants as if you knew everything about this place! You're just some ninja sent from the capital to keep your eyes on these invaders without any intention of lifting a finger, aren't you!" the man roared once again and Naruto actually looked confused, were there actual ninja that did that, that didn't seem very exciting at all?

"Why'd I do that? You idiot I was just wondering what your job was, you're obviously not a medic, your muscles would get in the way and you aren't sick, so you can't be those good-for-nothing guards!" Naruto yelled back, as he locked eyes with the man. The man's eyes that once held fire had dimmed slightly in confusion and bemusement at Naruto's explanation but this confusion was short lived as without explanation the taller man's eyes burst and burned even brighter in outrage.

"That's it! Get out of this pub!" shouted the tall Man as he grabbed Naruto by the back of his shirt.

"At least I can leave!" yelled Naruto as he managed to slip out of the man's grip and made his way to the door, a cheeky grin on his face. It'd been a while since he had a good yelling match, Jiraiya was usually good for one, but he hadn't seen his mentor for over a year now.

Naruto walked out of the pub rather gratefully, the smell of the various alcoholic drinks were nearly overpowering, the smell of trash in the alley wasn't much better but a breeze at least blew the odor away making the alley a little more bearable then the bar.

Naruto jumped infinitesimally as he heard a crashing come from the pub. He quickly turned around and was surprised to see the tall imposing man follow him out, the old man hobbling out behind him.

"So that's how," murmured Naruto to himself as he watched the wide shouldered man turn sideways in order to slip through the narrow doorway.

"Quite a spirited Ninja they sent this time, aye Doc," grumbled the tall man to the elder as the tall man made his way into the alley, leaning against the wall of the pub, pulling a lighter from the depths of his coat, fiddling with its top. The man's pervious outrage seemed to have completely disappeared, and Naruto felt slightly off kilter, had he just imagined the man's anger? With a shake of his head, Naruto quickly shrugged it off, no point in wasting precious thoughts on a man that was obviously not looking to skin him alive.

"Kurosaki, did you have to be so rough, I thought for sure you would have sent this one running," admonished the old man, who Naruto supposed was named Doc. Naruto watched their interaction with interest, they way they were interacting now was entirely different then it had been in the bar.

"Naw this one's too thick headed for that, he did manage to get past the guards without any fuss," Kurosaki said with a wave of his hand as he replaced the lighter into another pocket of his coat. "How'd you manage that anyway, Doc seems to think that you got in without alerting the higher ups."

For the first time Naruto had to wonder if he hadn't just stumbled upon the Old man, but that Doc had actually known he was coming and had been sent to pick him up. For some reason Naruto felt slightly cheated and a little cheap at the thought, like one of those ladies Jiraiya would pick up at bars.

"Well I just had Ninja identification, and they let me right in," shrugged Naruto, at Kurosaki's smirk, Naruto had to wonder just why the bigger man seem so pleased at the news, it wasn't anything spectacular in any way after all.

"That simple, huh, they just let the enemy walk right in, no questions asked?" Kurosaki asked with a raised eyebrow to express his disbelief. Kurosaki was sure there was more to it than just that, whatever this kid had done had been clever enough to trick those shrewd guards.

"Well they might not think I'm a ninja," admitted Naruto sheepishly as he ran a hand through the blond spikes at the back of his head, he would need a haircut soon, he reflected, it was getting a little long.

"Whaddya mean?" Doc asked with narrowed eyes, "you are a ninja aren't you?"

"I am, no questions there, it's just um… I might have led you, old man, to think I had a team outside but that's really not the case," Naruto shot the old man a quick glance before turning back towards Kurosaki, "I'm actually on my way back to Konoha from another… _extended_ mission, they actually don't know I'm here."

"You're avoiding the question. Why wouldn't the invaders think you're a ninja?" questioned Kurosaki with narrowed eyes. Naruto opened and closed his mouth several times before he looked down, kicking up dust with the tip of his shoes.

"I might have been trying to get in the Village for curiosities sake for the last two weeks or so, and they might have seen that up until today I didn't have a ninja headband on," Naruto said, laughing nervously.

"What happened to your headband, if you had just gotten back from a mission shouldn't you definitely have it on?" asked Kurosaki, and Naruto hated that this man knew more than the old man about Ninja etiquette, he would be far harder to trick. He couldn't just blame everything on ninja tricks and ninja magic like he had to the old man.

"Believe it or not, a fish actually ate it a while back," answered Naruto unconcerned as he plopped down on the ground of the dirty alley way, he was tired of standing around, that's all he'd been doing for the last week. Kurosaki and the Doc both seemed a bit at a loss of how to retort, but Naruto wasn't concerned as he yawned loudly. Naruto covered his eyes as he looked up towards the sun, it was just about high noon and the hot sun reminded Naruto there was still much to accomplish today, he did not relish it. "So what's your job, I don't think you said, and why are you so concerned about these good-for-nothings?" The bulky man paused, as he appeared to debate the issue. Naruto watched curiously from his spot on the ground, this man was far too expressive, especially with his eyes; Naruto could nearly read every emotion that played across his face. Finally, after what seemed like forever to Naruto, the man took a breath and opened his mouth.

"I'm a mercenary, actually, so you can see how being stuck in here is bad for business," garbled Kurosaki but Naruto managed to catch each word with chakra enhanced ears. Naruto looked the man up and down thinking that Kurosaki might have been built like a mercenary but he wasn't so sure that he was one. But Naruto kept this thought to himself, no point raising the question any more if an expressive man was willing to lie.

"Well I might not have a team, and no one might know where I am, but I suppose I can still help you guys out, how hard can it be anyway? It's not like they have any killer Jutsus up there sleeve!" Naruto declared a smile on his lips and an arrogant laugh not too far behind.

* * *

Naruto was maliciously mistaken; he had severely underestimated these good-for-nothings resources. Granted he didn't know how he was suppose to know at the get go that they had a top caliber force field around the whole village or that they had at least ten Seal Masters to keep it up at all hours of the day and every day of the last six months. They didn't even take weekends off, Naruto had to admit he was a little impressed by their dedication, but he was more annoyed with this then he would ever respect said dedication.

Naruto had once thought he was a connoisseur of escaping, as a prankster _and_ a ninja, he did not like to find out that he had been mistaken. It more than wounded his pride; it ripped a hole in his confidence leaving him standing on shaky feet before this new obstacle. But he didn't allowed this way of thinking to last for more than a few minutes before he was back to attempting a jail break. Not even Cloud's Prison had been as well fortified, but this, Naruto was determined, would not stop him. He would get out, it was just a matter of time at this point.

"What's with these stupid walls…" Naruto gasped as he charged a blast of chakra infused punch towards the wall, "these stupid good-for-nothings…" another punch, "and this STUPID rain!"

Naruto had given up on using tricks and strategy to get past the wall three months ago and had stopped using chakra draining Jutsus two months after that and since then he had simply been left to punch and kick the wall down with bare fists and his feet (with the barest amount of chakra so that he wouldn't break his hand on the cement walls.)

"Hey Boy! We need to take a rest for the day, this rain isn't lettin' up, and I heard there was lightning spotted already," cried Doc, he had been helpful enough to let Naruto stay at his house until either Naruto broke them all free or the occupation came to an end and reopened the borders. It was becoming infinitely more likely that the occupation was going to end before Naruto would be able to get out them out or at least Doc had thought as much soon after he had witnessed the first month of Naruto's failed attempts to escape.

"What does that matter?! I need to get out of here! I sent Granny a note! I was supposed to have been back ages ago!" Naruto yelled as he ran agitated hands through blond spikes. He hadn't been this frustrated in a while and usually it was only in response to someone's attitude, but this, Naruto decided, was a step further than any other irritation he had ever felt.

"Yellin' isn't going to get you out of here any sooner," grumbled Doc over the pattering of incoming rain, "'sides, their occupation should almost be over, Kurosaki tells me that the amount of sick they bring in has been decreasing lately."

"That's not the point…" Naruto mumbled as he sent another fist flying towards the wall. The point, Naruto declared silently to himself, was that he should have been able to get out of here a long time ago. Nothing he had tried worked, no matter how much chakra he used, nothing could take on these Seal Masters, and to Naruto that was unforgivable.

"Well, the point won't matter, if you stay out here much longer," said the old man as he peered out from underneath his thatched umbrella, "the rain's picking up." He muttered off hand.

"Urgh!" growled Naruto sending one last kick towards the wall before straightening himself up and stalking away from the wall, his footsteps echoing through each puddle he stomped through. Doc watched the irate blond's retreat before looking back towards the portion of the wall that Naruto had just vacated. There was a long, deep crack from the ground to about ten feet up. That last kick had done more damage than he had been able to make in two months. Doc smirked; perhaps this boy held some promise yet.

* * *

Naruto had quickly gotten over his melancholy mood, especially when Doc's wife came into the room carrying a large pot of curry. It wasn't ramen, Naruto knew, but so long as there was something warm to eat, Naruto was happy.

"Ah, I'm glad Naruto decided to come home early today," said the old lady with a sigh as the light above their heads flickered.

"Yea! I'm glad I didn't get stuck out in this weather!" agreed Naruto as he shoveled a mouthful of his third helping into his mouth.

"Only, 'cause I made you," muttered Doc as he looked despondently at his own half empty, first helping.

"You say something old man?" queered Naruto around a potato in his mouth. The lights flickered again, and Naruto started, this was the first brownout that he had noticed although they had been occurring periodically for the last hour or two. This brownout lasted for nearly a minute before the lights tentatively managed to fix itself and Naruto blinked in wonder once the lights came back on, before he shrugged and returned to his meal with gusto.

"Don't listen to anything that cranky old man says, dear," cooed the old lady, Naruto nodded distractedly glancing up to give his host a smile before he returned his attention to his plate.

"I never do," cheerily replied Naruto.

"Another helping, dear?" the old lady asked even as she spooned more rice onto Naruto's plate, "you are a growing boy! I remember when I had to feed three growing sons, nearly ate me out of house and home!"

"You ate just as much as all of them combined," grumbled Doc before he ducked underneath the messy ladle that swatted at his head, a chuckle on his lips.

"Honestly," sneered the old lady, as she took another swipe at her husband.

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" said Doc as he bowed away from the table.

"Either way, you're sleeping in the living room tonight!" groused the old lady, as she made another swipe at his head with the curry saturated ladle, flecks of the broth striking the side of the old man's face, despite dodging each swat. The squabbling couple quickly halted when the quiet buzz of house suddenly went quiet and the lights flickered off and even after a minute they didn't turn back on. Naruto looked around the dark house in interest, the house was completely pitch black, Naruto couldn't even see the plate in front of him!

"What's going on?" questioned Naruto as he looked around.

"The storm must have knocked out the power," answered the old man as he glanced through the crack in the shuttered windows, "the whole block seems to have gone dark."

Naruto sat up straight, if they didn't have power what about those people at the Hospital? There were more people than just those good-for-nothings staying there after all.

"The Hospital…" asked Naruto concerned.

"Oh they'll be fine! The Hospital has plenty of generators hooked up to it that'll keep it running for months if not _years_ without power from the grid," reassured the old man as he managed to grope his way back to the table as his wife came out of a cupboard in another room with candles and matches.

"What do you think happened?" posed the old lady as she nervously bit her weathered lip while she set out a brigade of candles around the room before making a circuit around the room to light each one, one by one.

"We won't know until this storm lets up, it's too dangerous to do anything tonight," explained Doc as he waved away his wife's concern. A blaze of lightning light up the room and seconds later a clash of thunder resounded throughout the room, as if to emphasis his point.

"Woah," said Naruto as he looked around the room, glowing in the fire of the flickering candles, "this place looks completely different in this lighting."

"It's the candles, they aren't as bright as a light bulb and there isn't enough to illuminate the whole room, so you can't see everything the same as you would with electricity," lectured the old man as he laid down on his side, leaving his cold curry were it was in front of him, he wasn't that hungry any way.

Naruto frowned as he examined the man in front of him, he wondered if the man was trying to teach him a lesson. If he had been, Naruto didn't particularly see the point in figuring out his meaning and within moments the lecture completely slipped his mind.

"Well Naruto dear, seems like we won't have power tonight so after dinner, it's straight to bed, no need to wash up, the water should be out as well," said the old lady as she cleared off the table in the low light of iridescent candles.

"The water's run by electricity too?" wondered Naruto curiously, he had thought that the two elements did not mix well.

"The pump to get the water out of the ground does," answered the old man as a wide yawn split his face, "anyway kiddo, it's time for bed, and you're in my room." Naruto smirked as he was waved off to the guest bedroom he had commandeered.

"Maybe next time you should be more careful what you say to your wife," said Naruto after he made sure that the noises in the kitchen indicated that Doc's wife couldn't hear them.

"You're one to talk, aigh Naruto," shoot back Doc with an uplifted brow Naruto could barely see in the twilight cast by the sea of candles.

* * *

"So what happened Kurosaki?" asked Doc the next morning when Naruto and he were on their way to the usual portion of the wall Naruto had been trying to break down for months. Doc was retired so he had nothing better to do then to watch Naruto's often amusing, if sometimes monotonous, attempts. The large man looked up over the crowd of civilians' heads and nodded to the old man and his companion.

"Seems like a bolt of lightning struck the transformer, power will probably be out for a while," grumbled the taller man as with a glare the towns people around him made way for Kurosaki to get out of their midst.

"What happened!" asked Doc, his eyes wide as he turned his full attention to the taller man.

"I thought I was pretty clear," grunted Kurosaki as he glared at the smaller man and using a condescending tone explained, "but a big bolt made up of lots of energy came from the sky hit that transformer that allows our houses to use electricity," Kurosaki smirked at the old man's glare before he turned back to look at the sparking pole above the heads of the crowding citizens, "it actually created a cascading effect and blew out transformers around the city, the electricity from the lightning was so strong that it actually traveled through the line and burnt other transformers."

"Wow!" grinned Naruto, it would suck that they wouldn't have power, but the power of electricity, Naruto had to grudgingly admit, was rather spectacular. He could sort of understand why Kakashi-sensei was sometimes leery to use such techniques.

A slap to the back of his head brought him back to his companions.

"What was that for!" shouted Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head, it hadn't hurt but the idea of the old man hitting him made him feel sour.

"Don't take pleasure in our misfortune! It's your misfortune too!" complained the old man as he glared up at his slightly taller charge.

"I was just impressed! Not every bolt of lightning can do that! Take down half the city with a single bolt hitting just the right spot!" admired Naruto, a grin on his face as he looked up at the blackened, sparking transformer above. "If only a bolt of lightning could have do something like that to the barrier as well…" Naruto sighed wistfully as an arc of electricity reached out from its old container.

"Wha…?" asked Kurosaki, "would that actually work, ninja man?" Naruto looked up at the large man, incredulously.

"The barrier is run by chakra not electricity," scowled Naruto with a raised eyebrow towards the man, and to think Naruto had thought that the taller man was actually smart.

"Well yes, but what if lightning had hit just the right spot, what would that do?" asked Kurosaki, an impatient scowl lighting his face. He didn't know much about chakra and ninja magic, but he did know that too much of anything in the right spot usually caused systematic degradation.

"Well if it hit one of the keystone seals… maybe, but it still wouldn't do much, except possibly make the area it hit unapproachable, chakra conducts electricity after all," Naruto muttered to himself before he grew silent and internally contemplated his options on just how lightning striking the barrier could have been a good thing. After a few minutes of hushed meditation Naruto's face light up and a foxy grin found its way to his lips as an idea came to mind.

"What's that face boy? You gunna do something dangerous?" wondered Doc as he edged away from his charge. That face was downright scary! Doc thought it seemed to spell doom, whether that meant for them or those good-for-nothings it was hard to tell, but he was hoping that it would be bad for those good-for-nothings.

"I think… I think I know how to defeat ten seal masters and the most powerful barrier known to mankind!" Naruto answered seriously, the grin on his face looking more ominous than ever.

"Ho…How?" asked Doc, more than a little apprehensive of the boy ninja's answer.

"I'm going to be lightning."

Kurosaki and Doc didn't understand just what that meant but they shared an equally discomfited glance towards each other as they watched the boy seemingly skip towards the barrier, readying himself for his last stand.

* * *

"_I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before!"_

_To be continued…_

**AN: I'm really sorry I meant to finish up this chapter ages ago and I was also planning on having Naruto's escape in this chapter, but I was more anxious to get **_**something**_** out for you guys before I return to school in the September. So so so! Sorry! But I'm starting the next chapter right away so you guys aren't completely left in the dark.**

**All so I've rewritten the first chapter. I hadn't realized how horrid it was until I was looking at it the other day. Hopefully this revised version is better! **

**Thank-you all for reading even after all these delays!**


	14. Escaping Winds

**Which Way to Konoha****?**

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own that which has been copyrighted or patented._

* * *

"_I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before…"_

Naruto smiled as he looked up at the wall, it had been his rival now for too long, and if this worked he would be glad to see it gone. Naruto took a few deep breathes, his eyes closed as he shifted his legs into a crouch. He needed to stay calm, to focus and center his mind and chakra.

"What do you suppose his plan is?" wondered Doc as he watched the boy ninja, to his old eyes the boy looked like he was about to fall asleep, or maybe that was just what the old man wanted to do.

"Guess it might have something to do with electricity," shrugged Kurosaki, his broad shoulders squaring as he folded his arms, "hadn't seen him that excited since the first few months of hurling those ninja tricks around." His companion chuckled, as though remembering the boy's excitement at being able to use any technique he liked at his opponent.

"That's for sure, the boy could hardly wait, he might have given up on doing those ninja tricks after a while since it seemed to draw to much of those good-for-nothings attention, but looks like they must've settled if he's going to attempt them again," agreed Doc as he watched patiently for Naruto to make his first move.

"Yeah, that or this is just going to be some foolhardy attempt," grumbled Kurosaki, his eyes calculating as Naruto finally made his move, even if it was just to place his hands on the wall, palms flat against the cool stones.

"You guys might want to move back more," called out Naruto, his blue eyes flashing as he looked over his shoulder. Kurosaki tensed, and unwittingly took a step back before he'd even registered what was going on. That boy was up to no good, there was something brewing in him that was powerful, and overwhelming, and Good Lord that boy was planning to kill them, not save them! The air was crackling with energy and Kurosaki could feel the sting of static chakra build up around them, coming from Naruto in waves. Kurosaki took another step back before he could register what he was doing.

"We're back the hundred feet you required last time you used a big Jutsu," called back the obvious Doc. Kurosaki's fists clenched as his arms dropped to his side.

"I think we should listen to 'im, he knows what he's talking about Doc," said Kurosaki as he began to walk away from the glowing boy, and the sense of panic that welled up inside of him only intensified the further way Kurosaki got, there was no mistaking the energy ripping through the area and the helplessness he felt in its wake. Kurosaki wondered how Doc could remain so calm; did the man's old age make him impervious to threats of his own certain death? Kurosaki briefly wondered, more as a distraction from the shivers of fright that slithered down his spine, if they made it out of this alive, if Naruto would consider joining his line of work. They could always use someone with that kind of power, might even be able to scare off some of those ninja brats looking to pick them up for the bounty. Being a mercenary was dangerous work after all, and with a boy of Naruto's power would only ascertain the success of any major job they received as well as bring in more jobs later. Kurosaki doubted the boy would agree though, seeing as the boy had a rather high moral code and Kurosaki doubted anything he could offer the boy would tempt him to join his band of Mercenaries.

"You don't suppose he's really going to become lightning, do ya?" asked the old man, a bit of worry leaking into his usually calm voice, "the wife would kill me if the boy don't come back with me tonight, in fact I think she mighta adopted him into the family the moment she met him. 'Sides, I think she likes the boy more than she ever liked me."

"Even if there was a trick that turned him into Lightning he'd already said that Chakra and Electricity are two different things, if he turned into electricity all he'd be doing was make the barrier stronger, don't think he's that stupid," reassured Kurosaki slightly amused when he noticed the tall tale signs that the old man was finally reacting to the unseen power warping the air, and the old man wasn't even worried about himself but the boy he had taken under his wing, the same boy creating all this destructive energy. Being old sure made one think funny, Kurosaki decided.

"Of course, maybe he's really doing just that…" murmured the Old man as he and Kurosaki watched the wall around Naruto spark and waver as it began to quake and crumble around him.

"Suppose he was having a difficult time focusing his energy to do something unnatural like those ninja tricks and magic of his, and just letting it loose was the more powerful option?" wondered Kurosaki appraisingly and a grin grew on his face. "He will do nicely indeed, in the bounty hunting game."

"Don't you think of it Kurosaki," scowled the Old Man next to him, having over heard the large man talking to himself.

"I don't know what you mean, Doc," answered Kurosaki and the Old Man looked at the tall man out of the corner of his eye. The smirk on Kurosaki's face could not be mistaken and the man smiled in return, if there was one thing the old man knew about Naruto it was that he was not to be swayed away from going home, not after the six month hiatus away from home, and Doc did not doubt that Kurosaki knew this just as well. A rather large rumbling brought Doc's attention back to the boy at the wall. Whatever that sound had meant, Doc knew that it certainly wasn't anything good, whether that meant it wasn't good for the Good-For-Nothings or them he couldn't be certain until he asked Naruto about it.

Naruto meanwhile was grinning manically as he took a step away from his masterpiece. Cracks the size of Gamabunta ran along the length of the Wall and Naruto could feel the current in the air that accompanied the facture of a seal, just one more push of pure Chakra in the barrier and it would break the seal that could cause a cascading effect in the destruction of barrier even if it meant compromising the outer wall the seal had been transcribed into, sending anything the seal had been sketched into to break just the same as the seal was. Naruto laughed out loud to himself, whoever had come up with the schematics of this barrier hadn't been very smart, they could have at least considered a backup plan in the case of a breach in their walls and if they hadn't before they could have thought of one the moment he had entered the village, especially if they had willing allowed him inside that barrier. Nothing stood a chance once Naruto got his hands on it, and it would show those guards just what Naruto's superior Ninja skills meant to whatever plan they had remaining at this village.

Naruto had to jump backwards when he felt the Earth underneath him begin to rumble. He landed next to Doc and bit his lip when he realized the one tricky spot to his plan. He hadn't counted on the walls falling in towards the city to be an option, but that was just what was happening.

"Those walls," Naruto muttered, his eyes wide as he assessed the situation, the walls would collapse in about one minute and if he couldn't think of anything fast, there would be serious damage to the village as well as to many civilians life, at least those around the wall.

"It's like watching jell-o!" crowed Kurosaki as his muscles tensed as he watched one of the weaker walls begin its dance of wobbling from side to side.

"Jell-o?" wondered Naruto, his mind blazing through all of his options. His chakra was nearly spent, and he had very little left to attack those good-for-nothing guards once the wall collapsed, and there was no doubt that if something didn't happen soon, that would be exactly what would happen. The walls would collapse on the villagers and destroy their residential areas, and then the guards, those crazy guards from outside the wall, would be able to plunder the city and leave it barren of its Doctor's and its Medical supplies.

"Yeah, Jell-o, like when you have to many layers of the stuff and you just barely touch it, it goes wobbling all over the place," explained Kurosaki, as if explaining himself was the last thing he wanted to do with the rest of the fifty-six seconds of his life.

"Jell-o?" repeated Naruto, and his eyes widened as a thought came to mind, and in a flash he was dashing down the streets and scaling buildings, making his way to the Hospital at the very center of the village, "Jell-o!" He laughed mirthlessly before he turned his attention inward.

The plumbing wasn't any different then Naruto had remembered it. But Naruto did not have the time or desire to assess the sewer he was in for any new details, this visit was as unwelcomed as it was unwanted but Naruto wasn't dumb enough to think it was unnecessary. Naruto hardened his nerves and widened his smile, that guy _hated_ when Naruto appeared unruffled in his presence, and Naruto was never above pissing that guy off. From where Naruto stood he could already see one red eye blink open before it narrowed in on Naruto.

"Yo Furball," Naruto called out from where he stood, "I'm stealing from the Bank!" Naruto had always thought it was more polite to inform the Fox when he was stealing its chakra then just doing it. It usually made the chakra come easier into his coils if the Fox was at least informed of the going on outside its prison and Naruto never failed to get a small kick from seeing the usually superior Fox ruffled at the mention of stealing its chakra.

With a burst of energy Naruto returned to himself and with a Fox chakra enhanced jump Naruto was spiraling up the side of the Hospital's roof, his hands already flying into the necessary seals so that the very moment his feet became grounded he could allow his plan to begin its course.

"Up there!" came a shout from one of the windows underneath him, Naruto barely spread the guards hanging out the windows a glance as he dodged around opening windows and jumped over thrown projectiles, nothing would stop him at this point.

"Ten seconds," Naruto shouted as he made one final jump over the edge of the roof, doing a flip in the air to get rid of some of his excess momentum. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as his feet planted firmly on the stones of the Hospital's roof and when he looked around, his blue eyes widened minutely at the number of good-for-nothings that had made it to the roof in time to meet his arrival. "Woah, fast!"

"Stop right there you Ninja scum! There is no plan out there that will allow you to get away from here with your life!" ordered one of the good-for-nothings.

"Then what's the point of stopping?" smirked Naruto, "if I won't live even if I give up! Three seconds!"

"Three seconds 'til wha—" began the good-for-nothing, but before he could finish his sentence Naruto had finished his final seal, and the wind all around them picked up.

"You might want to hold on to something," shouted Naruto over the whine of the wind as red chakra began to leak out around him, setting the very air around them on fire, "**Wind Style: Super Mega Ultimate Naruto Tornado!**" Just as the words were uttered the wind around Naruto gathered around him tightly. Naruto smiled within the wind's midst, this was a much better use of "**Wind Style: Wind Cocoon**" and another great offensive move, Naruto was always better at offensive then he was defensive. Just as the air around Naruto began to get thin that for a normal person would have made it harder to breath Naruto shouted out over the howling winds, "now comes the best part! **Release**!" The winds that had gathered tightly around Naruto went haywire and with the force of type 5 category hurricane winds the tendrils of demonic chakra and wind shot away from Naruto in all directions.

Some of the good-for-nothing still on the roof dropped low once one of their number was dragged off the roof from the force of the wind, and if it hadn't been for a Naruto clone, the man would have plummeted to his death, and that, Naruto knew, was no way for a warrior to die.

The released wind descended onto the city and only increased in force and power the further away it got from the source of its origin, accosting civilians and good-for-nothings alike before it finally made it to the outer walls. The crumbling walls didn't stand a chance as the chakra enhanced winds battered into the compromised barriers, the stones from the wall's rubble cascaded outwards, and its path of destruction carried the wall miles away. Needless to say any of the good-for-nothings outside the cities walls where no longer a worry, and Naruto nodded at a job well done, after making plans to send Doc and the any other Doctors out to find and assist the injured outside the wall as well as those inside of it.

"We surrender," chorused the good-for-nothings around him and Naruto nodded in bemusement of their quick defeat.

"But we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet," complained Naruto as he frowned at the troops nearest him, Naruto knew without a mirror that he must have made a frightful visage as his eyes glowed red in the mist of red chakra that was billowing off of his person, ventilating off the overload of demonic chakra. Naruto wondered momentarily if this appearance might have added to the easy surrender of the good-for-nothings around him before quickly dismissing such a notion as egotistical.

"As it is Sir," politely addressed one of their number, with a tremor Naruto could just barely detect, "you have completely decimated our backup and we are not about to take on one of _that_ power." The good-for-nothing said as he nodded towards the destroyed wall and its scattered pieces that went for miles.

"Yeah, I might have put a little too much juice into that last one, sorry," said Naruto sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, as he felt the darkened whisker marks begin to ebb away into faint lines once again, "but since you've all given up would you mind going out and gathering the wounded and making up a field hospital near the wall? Take some of the Nurses and Doctors here and ask if they'd help you, tell them old man Doc and Kurosaki asked 'em too." Naruto wasn't under any illusions he had any sway with the Doctors here, but from what he understood Doc and Kurosaki did have sway amongst the close knit professionals, and as it was good thing he was trying to start up he didn't even feel guilty about using their names without their permission.

"Certainly Sir!" saluted the bunches of good-for-nothings as they began to file towards the roof's door.

"And no funny business! A few of my colleagues should be here any moment!" lied Naruto. Well, reconsidered Naruto as he watched the good-for-nothings scurry down to the streets below, they would be here once he told Granny she should be sending them here, time didn't matter so much as the action of it happening anyway. As soon as he had checked on Doc and Kurosaki to see if they had both remained unharmed after his attack and charged them with looking after the clean up, Naruto decided, he needed to get back to Konoha, and fast! Now, more than ever, he needed to make sure he didn't get lost on his way back home.

* * *

"_And I didn't! I didn't get lost this time! But there was the run in with _these_ guys…"_

_To be continued..._

**AN: I wanted to get this out to you guys as soon as possible, so if there are parts that don't make sense so sorry about that! If there is anything major that needs to be fixed don't be afraid to tell me!**


	15. Rotten Youth

**Which Way to Konoha****?**

**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own that which has been copyrighted or patented._

* * *

"_And I didn't! I didn't get lost this time! But there was the run in with _these_ guys…"_

Naruto cursed as another branch jumped out and hit him in the face. He was in a rush to get back to Konoha, he _needed _to get back to Konoha, that Medic Village was going to need their help to rebuild and not just because Doc and Kurosaki were saying it was all his fault—it was _not _his fault or rather not entirely his fault—was he running as fast as he could in the direction that Kurosaki had reassured him multiple times was the right way. Those good-for-nothings hadn't been helping around the Village for the past few months, surely they could take some blame here too! In fact, Naruto thought it a little unfair that he was given any portion of the liability, after all it should be those good-for-nothings shouldering _all_ of the blame for the situation that the Medic Village found itself in. If the good-for-nothings hadn't been there then Naruto wouldn't have gotten caught in their trap and then he would not have been hired by Doc and Kurosaki and his band of Misfits to, well, to blow up the wall in the end. So, yes, it was entirely those good-for-nothings that were to blame!

Naruto had already spent as much time as he could to help the Village find as many survivors of the "Great Naruto Gate Incident" (as the villagers had taken to calling it) or as many moments as he could spare, there was only so much a single Ninja could do when they have a limited amount of Chakra. Naruto wouldn't have admitted it to Doc or Kurosaki, but there had been a very real possibility that he had over juiced that last attack in a desperate attempt to just get out of that stupid village and their stupid walls. Naruto was not claustrophobic in any way; he just _really_ disliked feeling trapped, without any means of escape, being imprisoned for nearly two months back in Lightning had not been one of Naruto's favorite times.

Naruto swore as his foot slipped from the bark of the tree he was jumping across. He hadn't had time to recharge his reserves, even with the added boost of Kyuubi's power he was usually provided, and he was having a difficult time navigating through the canopies. Naruto was still trying to regain his balance and contemplating leaving the safety of the trees canopy to make the rest of the trip on the ground when a flash of silver jumped out in front of him, hitting the trunk of the tree where his head had been seconds before. Naruto scoffed.

"Lame! Road bandits attacking the Great Leaf Ninja Uzumaki! They must have a death wish!" crowed Naruto as he finally regained his footing enough to turn around and grasp the Shuriken from the bark and pull it loose. No sooner did he have it in front of him when the shadow of a cloud of shurikens rained down on him. "Not fair! I'm not armed!"

The only response that the bandits gave him was to _shink!_ a kunai off of the shuriken in his hand. Naruto raised an eyebrow, did these bandits actually _want_ a fight? That was odd, most bandits would never in a million years intentionally engage in a fight, especially the ones in Fire Country, they were more concerned about making bank then exchanging steel.

"You guys are weird bandits!" shouted Naruto into the shadows, his eyes fixed on the shadows as he effortlessly dodged and reflected the incoming barrage of weapons. This bandit had nothing on Tenten! Now that was a weapons mistress to be worried about.

Naruto's eyes locked in on a shadow, it was stationary in the forest, even as the wind swept through the canopy of the trees. This was one of the reasons that Konoha ninja wore loose clothing, the immovable objects in the forest were usually the ones that needed to be avoided especially if they did not fit into the scenery of a forest that was always flowing and moving. Naruto had known this lesson longer than most, and he had applied it in many situations, usually when he was pranking someone, but his experience could not be scoffed at.

Without a second thought Naruto kicked himself off of the branch he was perched on and directed his path towards the shadow. Naruto watched the shadow take on a fighting posture. So they had seen him coming huh? That didn't mean they knew what the number one most unpredictable ninja was going to do! Naruto's jump would have landed shorter than the shadow was situated and so Naruto naturally let his body arch through the air onto the branch below and diagonal from the immovable shadow. Naruto had already determined to defeat these bad guys without any chakra, they were just lame bandits they didn't deserve for Naruto to go all out with them (never mind that Naruto didn't have enough chakra for a battle, at least not that the full out chakra wars he specialized in, anyway).

Green was all Naruto knew for a second when the once shadow charged at him, and Naruto's eyes crossed. He had to remember that these bandits were nothing like the ones he usually faced. The bandits he usually faced did not jump wholeheartedly into a confrontation like these guys seemed to be doing. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the orange fist make its way to his face, he was pinned underneath this monstrosity and his adrenaline began to course through his veins, blurring out the finer details of the forest and his attacker, all he knew was that he needed to get out of there before that punch landed.

With some fancy footwork Naruto managed to wrap his legs around the green bandit's waist, and before the punch could connect Naruto applied enough force to reverse their situations, sending the bandit on his back and leaving Naruto to pin him down. Instincts allowed for Naruto to effortlessly take advantage of his position, his fist drew back and Naruto allowed a infinitesimal spark of chakra to add force to his punch, just like he had seen Sakura do once and Tsunade do many times, he reasoned just a little wouldn't be breaking his self imposed limitations. Naruto stared down at his opponent, looking for any obvious signs of weakness that he could exploit but his eyes widened and he managed to slowdown his punch enough that when it grazed the bandit underneath him it would do nothing more than leave a black eye.

"Bushy brows! Is that you?" cheered Naruto as he sat up a little straighter, forgetting that he had the boy pinned.

"Naruto," growled Lee and Naruto tilted his head, boy did Bushy Brows sound upset.

"Is that how you greet an old friend?" lectured Naruto accidentally applying more pressure to the downed teens elbows and knees.

"You're spring time of youth has become most rotten," answered the teen, Naruto could only guess what that could mean when he felt a burst of pressure shock its way through his shoulders and before the final burst could be applied Naruto ducked out of the way, rolling off of Lee, his pulled his borrowed Shuriken up just in time to reflect the set of kunai sent his way. Naruto effortlessly plucked one of the kunai that had missed its mark in mid air and lazily swung it around his index finger.

"What's the big deal calling my youth rotten!" declared Naruto angrily, "it's as sun shinny as it's ever been! Maybe even more sun shiny than ever!"

"Only you would have gotten offended at Lee's nonsense," drawled the cool edge of Neji's monotonous timbre. Naruto gulped, Neji did not sound happy, Naruto wondered if they had had a bad mission, but he couldn't think as to why they would take it out on him. Shouldn't there be more rejoicing like there had been when he had gotten back from his three year hiatus with Ero-sensei?

"Woah Neji, what crawled up your butt?" called back Naruto and when another barrage of weapons showered him which Naruto easily dodged out of the way positioning himself further away from his friends. For some reason they were angry at him, and Naruto was not well equipped to butt heads with them right now.

"Naruto you are under arrest for the abandonment of Konoha, you are to be brought in alive," informed a feminine voice from the trees. Naruto turned his eyes to look at where the voice had issued and was easily able to spot the dark outline of Tenten's unique buns.

"Have you been taking too many Soldier pills, Tenten?" asked Naruto truly worried. Naruto had asked once to use Soldier pills after seeing Akamaru and Kiba use them in battle when he was younger, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, had sat him down for four hours telling him all of the terrible things that Soldier pills could do to him, especially with his unique Chakra reserves, with them being, you know, humongous. Naruto supposed that they did not take his concern as something serious because Neji and Lee fell into battle stances that Naruto had never seen and Tenten sent a volley of weapons towards him.

Naruto cursed, he had thought he had been out of her range, but apparently Sakura hadn't been the only one to have gotten stronger when Naruto had left three years ago. Naruto could easily twist himself out of the way of the weapons, it was one of the few things that Naruto was sure he would never get rusty at, it had been so ingrained in everything he had done from the time he was a little kid, around the same time he had begun pranking, consequentially. But the moment that the volley had stopped Neji and Lee came at him from both sides. One on One Naruto was sure that he could have at least put up a fight, but two on one with no chakra to speak of in his reservoir, now that would be tough.

Naruto hopped over the low kick Lee had sent his way, but quickly he had to dodge out of the way of Neji's touch of death, not that there was any Chakra left in his body to block off. But Naruto supposed that was what made Neji's gentle fist attack that much deadlier to Naruto, all the Chakra left in him was what was left to make his body run smoothly. With that sort of knowledge Naruto was easily able to sacrifice dodging most of Lee's attacks to avoid Neji at all costs.

Lee was getting frustrated, Naruto could see it, boiling underneath his bushy brows, and Naruto wondered if he could use that to his advantage. Rivalry, that was something Naruto understood on a level below instinctual. He remembered how it felt to always be overlooked when in comparison to Sasuke, and while honestly Naruto thought that Bushy brows was a better ninja when in comparison to Neji (granted Naruto's scale of awesome ninja's was based entirely on their obvious enthusiasm) Naruto thought he could use this preprogrammed idea of rivalry for his benefit. Maybe if he could get Lee and Neji to self-destruct he could finally ask Tenten what the heck was going on.

"That was nothing Bushy Brows!" called Naruto as he dodged Neji's attack but let Lee's punch graze his side. Secretly Naruto wondered how many more of Lee's super powered punches and kicks he could take. Neji spared his rival a glance, one that Naruto was sure was meant to console his partner and calm him down. But Naruto had once heard that Neji had joined ANBU and from experience Naruto knew that when you've been away from your team there is often a slight disconnect until they remember just what it meant to be on a team with the other, Naruto was counting on this disconnect to be in place.

"Gosh Neji, that one almost got me, that attack you used on me earlier, I don't ever want to experience that again!" stated Naruto and he sent a significant look at Lee as he allowed a body shattering kick directly connect with his stomach. Naruto just hoped that Kyuubi would be willing to heal the damage he was receiving from Lee's body breaking hits.

Tenten rolled her eyes, it was so obvious what Naruto was trying to do, the boy was barely standing of course he would use a last ditch plan to get the two against each other.

"Wow Bushy Brows! I thought for sure you'd have been stronger than this by now! Have you been slacking?" Tenten heard Naruto crow. Now he was just being cruel, Tenten decided with a smirk. Lee knew better than anyone just how strong he had gotten, he was level with Gai-sensei now when it came to strength.

Tenten straightened up as she saw Naruto slip out of the way of both Neji and Lee's attack. Neji's attack missed, but Lee's had connected with Neji's legs, and it had sent Neji craning to the side. Neji had not had a stance wide enough to completely block Lee's more than overpowered kick. Lee had been getting so frustrated that Naruto could take every one of his attacks he had been steadily increasing the power of each hit exponentially.

'_That little…_' thought Tenten as she straightened her crouch, her eyes scanning for the elusive blond. She had to buy time for Neji to recover and for Lee to calm down. She spared a glance over towards her boys. Neji looked to be nursing either a broken ankle or a sprained one. Lee looked to be both distraught and furious, he was apologizing to Neji repeatedly, but Tenten could tell by the stiff stance of Lee's bow just how wound up he was.

"Hey Tenten, so what did you mean when you said that I was under arrest?" the voice came from directly behind her, and she hadn't sensed a thing, Naruto had learned a few tricks since his departure because usually he light up like a burning Mansion.

"Naruto," she growled, slightly embarrassed at the hammering of her heart.

"You're mad at me too!" Naruto sighed exasperatedly as he ran a hand through his messy blond hair, "Tsunade must be really mad too, gosh, I'm going to have to hear this looonnngg lecture before I'll even be able to get a word in edgewise and then old Doc well be furious at me for not sending them any help sooner."

"Old Doc?" Tenten questioned, she wondered if she would be able to keep the boy distracted long enough so that she could reach the summoning scroll that she had dropped at his sudden arrival.

"Yeah, the old man back at the Village of Medics," answered Naruto as he dropped down into a relaxed pose, using her precious summoning scroll to prop his elbow on, "they gave me some money to give to Konoha and a note that gave me legal right to request the mission in their honor."

"What does the Village of Medics have to do with anything, is that where you abandoned Konoha to go to?" asked Tenten, her eyebrows drawn together. Their original mission had been to check out the disturbance in the forest that connected Konoha to the famous Village of Medics. Team 10 had also been sent directly to the Village of Medics when they had not immediately answered the Hokage's _or _the Fire Daimyo's summons the past several weeks to answer for the lack of Medicine throughout all of Fire Country.

"Naw, I never abandoned Konoha, just got a little lost on the road of life, heh who would have thought that one of Kakashi's lame excuses could have been true," joked Naruto with a lighthearted air. Tenten took the opportunity to check where her teammates had gone, both where not in the place she had left them.

"Road of life, where's that?" Tenten questioned as she desperately searched the tree tops for her teammates.

"Oh that's the Road that goes from Thunder to Konoha, or that's what old man Tazuna called the road, he could have been lying, for some reason he likes to pull my leg like that," shrugged Naruto, but he froze mid gesture, before he stood up. His stance was lazy and relaxed, but Tenten tensed up and dropped into a taijutsu stance, Lee hadn't been the only one to be taught by a world renowned taijutsu specialist.

"Honestly Tenten, you should know better than to fraternize with the enemy," yawned the lazy voice of Konoha's least ambitious ninja, Nara Shikamaru. Tenten strained her eyes towards the shadows, she could barely make out Team 10 all standing side by side, Shikamaru with his hands in his pocket, Ino with her fingers crossed and ready for a fight, while Choji sat on the branch beside his teammates, if Shikamaru wasn't worried, neither was Choji.

"Hey, hey is that Shikamaru!" cheered Naruto, he did not appear the slightest bit upset about his current position and that worried Tenten more than realizing that Naruto had managed to hold off both Neji and Lee without the use of any Chakra, what kind of beast had this cheerful blond turned into.

"Yes," Shikamaru sighed, "it's me."

"How've you been Shikamaru! You wouldn't believe what's happened to me!"

"For some reason I think I might," disagreed Shikamaru.

"Hey, is Neji alright?" asked Naruto, and Tenten saw the way that Ino froze, she must have seen the damage and mistakenly thought that it had been Naruto that caused it, "Lee can pack quite the punch, I'm sure he broke just about all of my ribs and the bones in my right arm!"

Tenten would not doubt that.

"Tenten, if you would," ordered Shikamaru, and Tenten was not under any illusion that it was anything other than an order. She simply nodded and reached into her weapons pouch for her ninja wire and a seal. It was quick business to wrap Naruto up when the most he could do was shout his confusion at her. But Shikamaru kept the boy under his shadow technique tightly, but if the sweat that beaded the ponytailed boy's head was anything to go by it was no easy feat. When she was finished wrapping the boy up tightly, each of his fingers affixed to each other so tightly that they couldn't bend to perform any jutsu's she quickly slapped the Chakra blocking seal to the boy's forehead.

"Woah, what is that thing?" asked Naruto as he went cross eyed trying to identify the seal, "it feels all tingly."

"That's not how it's supposed to feel," said Ino, her eyes showing her worry as she glanced at Choji his face very much the same way. Tenten watched the exchange but she couldn't identify where their worry stemmed from.

"Alright Tenten, I'm going to undo the jutsu, after that I want you to take him to the ground, you'll have to go slowly since he won't be able to use any chakra to help him down. If you go straight down to the trunk of this tree you'll see Ino healing Neji up, we'll meet you down there," informed Shikamaru, and for some reason Tenten got the impression that the order wasn't just for her benefit if the significant look Shikamaru sent Naruto's back was anything to go by.

* * *

"_Would you believe me if I said that that was the most confused I had ever been?"_

_To be continued..._


End file.
